14 Mar 2023

Parliament has heard that negotiations between government and DeBeers, which started in March 2019, on the sale of Debswana’s diamonds are still ongoing.

Answering a question in Parliament on Monday, Minister of Minerals and Energy, Mr Lefoko Moagi said it was therefore difficult to state the exact date on which the negotiations would be completed due to complexity and commercial materiality of issues being negotiated.

“A lot of progress has been made on the majority of issues but since the issues are negotiated as a package the negotiations can only be concluded when the agreement has been reached on all the issues on the table,” the minister said.

He added that teams working on the negotiations had been instructed by both shareholders to work harder to resolve the issues before the sales agreement expiry date on June 30.

Member of Parliament for Maun West, Mr Dumelang Saleshando had asked the minister to update Parliament on the negotiations with De Beers on the mining and sale of Botswana diamonds and when the negotiations were expected to be completed. Ends