10 Nov 2013

About 82 De Beers clients called sightholders are to arrive in Gaborone for the first ever international diamond sale to be conducted by the De Beers Global Sightholders Sales (DBGSS). 

That was made possible following the relocation of Diamond Trading Company (DTC) from London to Gaborone. For many years, Botswana had internationally been known as the hub of mining activities and had now moved to be a world centre of diamond sales. 

Through beneficiation, 21 sightholders, diamond cutting and polishing companies, had been established in the country, creating 3500 jobs. Ms Varda Shine, Mr Paul Rowley and Mr Tabake Kobedi were all adamant that the future that Botswana had been waiting for had arrived. 

Asked if all 82 sightholders will participate in the historical sight, they were all optimistic with Ms Shine the executive vce president of DBGSS, saying they were planning on undertaking 10 sights annually valued at US$5 billion, meaning US$500 million per sight. 

Mr Kobedi, DTC Botswana managing director said they were the world’s largest sorting and valuing facility with capacity to sort 45 million carats per year.  He said even the local sightholders had adopted latest technologies available internationally.  DTCB sells 12 per cent of its production to Okavango Diamond Company, government’s diamond marketing wing. 

Together with Ms Shine and Mr Rowley, he said there were downstream opportunities for local entrepreneurs and called for Batswana to take advantage of such.  Ms Shine said there were opportunities in areas such as transport, leisure and entertainment as well as catering. 

She said DBGSS had created further citizen roles, increased skills transfer and provided exposure to international business. DTCB dealt with sorting and valuing of Debswana production and was a joint venture between the government and De Beers. DBGSS did the aggregation and sales to sightholders and is fully owned by De Beers. 

She said the relocation was going to be meaningful but relies on the people of Botswana to use opportunities available. Commenting on the relocation of ABN AMRO Bank from Botswana, Ms Shine said they would still assist sightholders from their international office in Belgium hence it would not have an impact. 

She further said beneficiation was done on commercial basis and not corporate social responsibility, adding she was passionate about it and would continue to support it.  Mr Rowley said Botswana was ready to conduct the first sight although there were some supporting infrastructure that was not fully ready such as the Sir Seretse Khama International Airport. 

He said there were some positives as Botswana has been ranked highly internationally and amongst the world’s safest nations.  The airport expansion was initially timed with the 2010 FIFA World Cup played in South Africa and it has been three years since elapse of the original completion date and remains incomplete. Ends