Early this week I visited relatives of mine at Letlhakane just outside Orapa.
One of them, an old illiterate woman told us a sad story of how after burning her hands a few years ago she was advised to get specialist help from Orapa Hospital but in the end could not, because, as she put it she did not have a passport.
A few days earlier at the weekend dignitaries from all over the country had descended onto Orapa to witness the official opening of a gate that had cost P58 million to erect.
This is staggering. And without context it is impossible to understand how a gate could cost so much.
To open the gate, Vice President Slumber Tsogwane was hauled in by the rich and powerful organisers.
He is a native of the Botleti area. And also a Member of Parliament.
But in his previous life before politics, Tsogwane had a good share of his own difficulties with the Orapa mine.
Today Tsogwane is a big national political figure – inside the ruling party and also inside government. And the mine is unashamedly and hastily eager to obliterate that historical fact of a run in between itself and Tsogwane.
But that’s an aside.
Orapa is a republic within a republic. And that is what the P58 million symbolizes.
And it does not seem to matter to authorities here because from early on in different capacities they have always gotten themselves beholden to De beers and its various axis.
As a result, in Botswana and at Orapa to be more specific, De Beers has created for itself an idyllic existence, flitting between the reprehensible and the unimaginable – an existence that could not be replicated anywhere else in the world where it has similar operations such as those it has in Botswana.
In perplexed envy, De Beers peers elsewhere can only watch from a distance.
To create Orapa Mine, a whole lot of people had to make way.
These where ordinary people living ordinary people.
But they were content with their frugal lives.
They grudgingly gave away their grazing lands, cattle posts and boreholes because they were convinced that the sacrifices they were making were for the good of the nation.
They were told that they would never regret it. Fifty years later, they still regret their decision.
Many of their descendants are today much poorer than their forefathers.
Many such descendants have had their lives irreparably ruined as they are unable to wean themselves from reliance on state handouts.
A few questions remain unanswered.
Why do De Beers and Debswana feel they need to create a monstrous aberration such as they have done in Orapa?
Enthusiasts would jump and shout that it’s for security reasons.
May be there was a time in the past during the days of Sir Seretse Khama, Sir Ketumile Masire and Harry Oppenheimer when that could be justified on pure security terms. That was a long time ago.
Continued parceling Orapa out of the country has got nothing to do with security of diamonds in modern times.
In fact doing so in this era violates all the tenets of modern security.
Manifestly, ringfencing Orapa out of the country, and then enforcing requirements on it that are tantamount to those of international travel is beyond the pale.
A relative of mine at Letlhakane says entering Orapa requires a passport.
It might sound like a hyperbole. But she is right.
And this has got nothing to do with security of diamonds.
In fact notwithstanding this draconian requirement, diamond smuggling continues unabated.
This is because those at the centre of smuggling turn out to be the very guardians of the security apparatus guarding the diamonds.
As an operation, diamond smuggling is largely quasi officio, with an array of security agencies and personnel from Debswana, to Botswana Police and to the intelligence services, DIS involved knee-deep into it – one way one another.
These are people who together with their political masters are part of the underworld.
To those not familiar with mining security, the following are the elemental essentials.
There is often a zonal variation of the areas inside the mine.
There will be the green zone and the red zone often with a few other variations in between.
In a normal mining security setting (Orapa is not one) a green zone is where the public would mingle freely. This zone is far removed from actual mining activity.
A green zone would have such things like a township, churches, mosques, synagogues, shops, sports and entertainment facilities.
No intense security vetting would be required to enter this area.
Yet the opposite is the case with Orapa.
Ordinary people from around Botleti who are looking for a job inside the mine cannot even enter unless they know somebody in the mine.
And too often than not they do not know a single person working in the mine because a majority of people working there are from outside of that sub-district.
Now a P58 million gate has been erected, not to facilitate their entry, but to more effectively keep them far at bay.
And Debswana and indeed De Beers cannot decipher this irony of terms.
For many young people from Botleti this gate represents the worst form of humiliation.
After a green zone, there would be a red zone.
A red zone is high security area where actual mining and cleaning of raw material happens with the highest probability of one picking a diamond somewhere along the plant – if there is ever such a thing.
Ordinary local guys coming to look for a menial job at Orapa Mine cannot be thinking of going into a red zone.
It’s not clear why to this day Botswana Government continues to participate in this security laden façade.
Botswana Government should use the ongoing negotiations for a new Agreement with De Beers to call the company out.
Botswana Government should tell De Beers that the days playing roulette with the lives of Batswana is no longer feasible.
As the P58 million new gate in Orapa opens, for ordinary folks in and around that area there is not much to show in celebration of the vast wealth generated around them.
Aluta Contnua.
The struggle continues!
