Owing to an entrenched culture of secrecy surrounding the diamond industry, very few Batswana can today speak authoritatively on the international diamond market.
This is despite the fact that Botswana has been a leading producer for decades.
Batswana have never really had to learn much surrounding their diamond industry.
What information was good for public consumption was decided by De Beers and dutifully rationed to the public by Debswana, ably assisted by Government, specifically the Ministries of Finance and that of Minerals.
That has meant that even as Botswana is by far the world’s largest producer of diamonds (by value) only a handful of citizens are well versed with the intricacies of the diamond industry.
An even smaller number of citizens has ever seen a real diamond with their eyes.
That is just as weird.
It is also a national disgrace.
As we all know, until a few years ago, it was almost a crime toeven be heard discussing the benefits the country stood to make were polishing and diamond sorting factories be s
et up in Botswana.
A narrative had been created and widely believed that cutting and polishing could not be sustained in Botswana as that was the reserve of such places like Israel, India and Antwerp.
We now know that was a lie; peddled by De Beers and forcefully rammed down our throats by Debswana executives, cabinet ministers and their hangers on.
This is because what has passed for an official policy of the diamond industry over the years has actually been an exercise of copious use of information selectively churned out by De Beers and Debswana (chiefly by De Beers) and principally meant to hide the internal flaws of the sector (especially on ethics) while exaggerating successes.
Next to that an even bigger lie has been created that Botswana owes its very existence to the De Beers/Debswana axis, that Botswana needs De Beers much more than is the other way round, that, as a nation, we are here thanks to a large extent to De Beers.
Time has come for citizens of this country to crawl out of the shell and openly debate the true benefits De Beers and Debswana have bequeathed the country, and if there could not have been better alternatives.
Such a debate, especially if it could lead to a Commission of Enquiry would lay to rest the long lingering suspicions that government leading functionaries have been accomplices in the betrayal of public trust in their interactions with De Beers.
Just as government instituted an audit into Debswana operations, it should go all the way and extend the exercise to cover De Beers, especially the company’s dealings with the ruling part.
It is only by way of an independent judicial enquiry (if we still have such a thing) that widely held perceptions that government key personalities sold out the country to international diamond interests would be dispelled.
There is no underplaying De Beers contribution to Botswana, given the company’s institutional knowledge of the diamond industry, especially on marketing and technology, but still the truth is that De Beers’ importance to Botswana has been particularly and deliberately blown out of proportion.
Such importance has been recklessly exaggerated with a systematic and sustained poise.
Implicit in such myths are claims that Botswana would undergo a meltdown were this company to leave our borders.
Botswana Government is today unable to mount any credible resistance to such organisations like Survival International who are discrediting Botswana diamonds simply because Batswana do not understand the industry.
Botswana diamonds have become a fertile ground for all sorts of negative imagery but because we are a nation not schooled in diamonds, notwithstanding their importance, we are at the mercy of De Beers who we hope will use their knowledge of the industry to protect and save us as a nation.
That cannot be right!
