03 Apr 2024

President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi has urged Heads of Mission abroad to protect Botswana diamond and support his demand for a new and improved deal with the world leading diamond producer, De Beers. Speaking during Heads of Mission Conference in Gaborone yesterday, President Masisi said government broke the glass ceiling in its last negotiation with De Beers though a lot could still be done. 

“The old agreement with De Beers was so fraud with fundamental problems. I shudder when I think of that being an agreement, we have been framed for so long. It's time we step out and see it was bad for Botswana and saying its bad is not to suggest we did not get anything out of our diamonds. We got far too little and they got far too much out of a bad agreement,” he said.

President Masisi said government was taken advantage of because at the time the deal lacked sophistication in its crafting. He said Botswana became a victim of an 'agreement-based violence' at the hands of its own partner.

“We were sweet talked into a bad agreement. We are not continuing with it and I advised my negotiating team never to sign it.

The deal is off. I was even aware of my own political prospects by that decision, but that was least important.” President Masisi said the agreement was bad because a clause that accorded government participation only on rough diamond sales was deliberately inserted.

He said since mining took place in Botswana, De Beers took 100 per cent until government established a company in 2011 to discover price and opportunities in the mineral space. “We did not participate in value addition, yet we have the richest diamond mine in the world by value.Why get so little relative to the potential?

There was no answer and I suggested we get an improved deal,” he added. President Masisi said the business size of the economy of diamonds was US$85billion, which motivated government to remove the clause and move the dial of the country's GDP through participation in the diamond value chain.

He said government proposed that most of the diamonds allocated to De Beers should be beneficiated to Botswana and government had taken a decision to extend the proposition to other natural resources.

The wildlife economy is also going to take a transformative shift, he said. ends