17 Nov 2022

The media industry is a vital link to the rest of the nation and the outside world, hence a need to engage it time and again to ensure it reports while well informed.

This is according to the general manager of the Debswana Jwaneng mine, Mr Koolatotse Koolatotse.

Speaking during a media familiarisation tour of the Jwaneng mine on Tuesday, Mr Koolatotse said because the media was such an important stakeholder in the mine’s  operations, they would hold such tours at least quarterly, to ensure the media was always up-to-date with the operations of the company, even on the slightest of changes.

“As a company, we mine a very sensitive product on behalf of Batswana, so transparency is vital and we want the media to help us on this push for transparency,” he said.

On the operations of the mine, Mr Koolatotse indicated that Jwaneng mine, which had been operating for 40 years, was the safest mine in the world, and most productive globally.

“This compels a need to keep mining responsibly.

Such a safety record was one of the key factors that helped Botswana in wining to host the Kimberly Process secretariat” he said.

He also said apart from mining safely, Debswana Jwaneng mine also mined optimally so that most profits could go to national coffers.

“The country benefits bout 80.8 per cent from diamonds.

That is so because we have a 50/50 partnership with De Beers, and after getting our half, we also take 15 per cent from De Beers as a shareholder.

 We then take royalties and tax them,” he said.

He said such an arrangement  by and large made De Beers almost a citizen-owned company.

Highlighting on the newly formed Naledi mining services company, which is 100 per cent owned by Debswana, Mr Koolatotse said the intention of its formation was to allow it to freely mine in the rest of the world.

“Debswana specialises in mining diamonds while Naledi is free to apply mining skills in other minerals.

If it mines outside it means more benefits for Debswana,” he said.

He said that Batswana should take pride in the fact that Debswana Jwaneng mine employed 99.8 per cent citizens, with only three foreign nationals.

After the media tour, The Voice newspaper reporter, Ms Portia Mlilo expressed appreciation for efforts by Debswana Jwaneng mine to keep the media abreast of developments at the mine.

“We learnt a lot from the tour.

I specifically loved the part of Citizen Economic Empowerment and that the mine has localised most of the jobs,” she said.

Mr Godfrey Ganetsang, an independent journalist, also appreciated the initiative to forge a relationship between Debswana and journalists as he said the media was used to a love-hate relationship between it and the ‘supposed-to-be stakeholders’.

“As a company backed by government it is important that you become open and transparent,” he said of Debswana.

He reminded fellow journalists of their responsibility to inform and educate, which challenged them to attain full facts in order to strengthen cordial relationships.  BOPA