There are reports which indicate that in just a few years that production has been ongoing, the Marange mines in Zimbabwe are churning over a million carats a month.
While the Zimbabwean stones are no doubt of much lower quality compared to what Botswana produces in Jwaneng and Letlhakane, it goes without saying that Zimbabwean authorities have shown a determination to grow the output of diamonds in that country.
At a million carats a month, Zimbabwe’s output translates into a third of Botswana’s total production at the current production levels of just over 30 million carats a year.
This therefore makes Zimbabwe a new entrant into the world’s diamond market with the potential to increase its footprint.
It is our hope that the diamonds in Zimbabwe will be used to develop their country and put the economy on the course for recovery.
The Zimbabweans have suffered a lot, with poverty especially in the rural areas having reached desperate levels.
The reason why there are so many millions of Zimbabweans outside their country is a result of political instability at home, but also because such political instability has driven down the productive economic capacities to such low levels that many people can no longer make ends meet.
The arrival of such a precious commodity like diamonds, which has proved such a boon should prove a source of excitement for a people like the Zimbabweans.
Yet that has not been the case.
This is because, as is the case in so many other areas of the economy, the ruling strongmen of Zimbabwe are now looking up to the new find as yet another honey pot into which to dip their hands but also to use the proceeds to brutalise and further oppress the ordinary people.
There are reports that there is no clear framework of law and order at the Marange mines.
Yet, as we in Botswana would be so well aware, diamonds are such a sensitive commodity that needs a tight production regime in security, accountability and transparency.
Any breach thereof can easily result in the contamination of the market so much so that the whole point of trading in diamonds may very well be entirely eroded.
What the Zimbabwean authorities need to be reminded over and over again is the simple but very important story line that diamonds are a discretionary purchase.
Nobody buys diamonds because they have to.
Nobody dies because they have not bought diamond jewellery.
As such the commodity is very fragile in its sensitivity to external markets.
What happens at the Marange mines ultimately has a bearing on Botswana’s capacity to derive the maximum benefits by way of high prices in the diamonds.
As a result we call on the Botswana Government to help the Zimbabwean set up a credible framework with elaborate structures of control that will benefit not just Zimbabwe but the whole of the producers, especially in Southern Africa.
Such a framework in Zimbabwe can only serve to enhance the integrity of Botswana’s production lines.
We say so, not only because for Botswana, when it comes to diamonds there are no higher stakes but also because from our experience as Botswana the world diamond market is so inextricably linked that a hitch in another country affects the whole pipeline.
Reports that the low quality stones from Marange have been destabilizing the market and throwing everything off balance are a source for concern.
This is over and above further reports of human rights abuses said to be endemic at Marange.
It may now sound like a clich├®, but the truth of the matter is that a majority of diamond consumers who are the wealthy people in the west do not have an elaborate understanding of Africa.
They are thus vulnerable to misinformation and distortion.
Some of them do not even know that Africa is large continent with many countries in it, let alone of the fact that Zimbabwe and Botswana are two distinct countries with separate jurisdictions that have nothing in common except a geographical proximity created by nature.
Such people, as history showed in the past, can very easily end up boycotting Botswana’s diamonds when in actual fact they had set out to punish Botswana.
Once again we want to highlight the fact that diamond production in Zimbabwe has consequences for Botswana and as such it is in Botswana’s interest to ensure that Zimbabwean diamonds are clean, meeting such international standards as set out in processes like the Kimberley Process.
