A five member high level delegation led by the Minister of Minerals Kitso Mokaila and Botswana’s High Commissioner to India Lesego Motsumi is reported to have been left stranded at an Indian state, Surat this past week.
Reports coming from India indicate that Mokaila, who left the country last week, together with Motsumi and three other government officials were on a diamond bench marking trip in Surat, India’s second largest city but had no one to welcome them at various diamond institutions.
It is said that Mokaila and his delegation were rather greeted with deserted diamond markets, closed units as well as absence of Indian Diamond Institute (IDI) students.
It has further emerged that except for a couple of diamond industry leaders at their disposal, Mokaila’s delegation could not meet who’s who of the diamond industry in India who were their main target. The diamond industry leaders in India are reported to be spending the holiday with their families and friends.
The Times of India reported on Thursday that the delegation members led by the minister were in miserable situation after learning that the diamond polishing capital is observing a 25-day-long Diwali vacation.
Official sources say that the delegation wanted to get a first-hand look of the infrastructure at the institute. Government recently announced that similar infrastructure will be set up in Botswana for the India-African diamond institute. It is not clear how much the trip to India costed as Government officials at the Minerals Ministry were not in a position to tell during the time of going to press.
Mokaila, who is also a Member of Parliament (MP) for Borolong was however quoted in the Indian media saying, “We wanted to understand the process of diamond cutting and polishing, but it is vacation time in the industry. We want to provide employment to our people by setting up a diamond institute in cooperation with IDI.”
“Mokaila and Botswana high commissioner Lesego Ethel Motsumi landed in the Diamond City to understand the diamond cutting and polishing industry and take a close look at the facilities at Indian Diamond Institute (IDI),” the Indian newspaper stated.
Botswana is the largest diamond producing country in the world by value, supplying 21 per cent of global rough diamond production. At present, the diamond production from the country’s five mines is estimated at 28 million carats and the exploration at two new mines is going on.
When launching the last phase of the relocation in Gaborone recently, diamond industry officials in the country stated that through beneficiation, 21 sight holders, diamond cutting and polishing companies, have been established in the country, creating close to 3500 jobs.
Beginning this week there was a crack of dawn on the diamond industry of the country as over 80 international diamantaires, also known as sight holders from around the world converged in the capital Gaborone to buy diamonds. This, according to officials at DTC Botswana is the final stage of the relocation of a $6 billion a year business from London to Gaborone.