Botswana President: "De Beers is Not Doing its Job"
July 21, 25
(IDEX Online) - Botswana president Duma Boko has criticized De Beers for "not doing its job" in an unusually forthright attack.
"Maybe we should take over and sell them (the diamonds) ourselves," he told an audience last week on a visit to Lesotho, while lamenting his country's struggling economy.
His comments come just six months after his government signed a long-overdue 10-year sales and mining agreement with De Beers.
His predecessor Mokgweetsi Masisi had threatened on several occasions to walk away from a deal that has been in place since 1969, as he demanded a greater share of the diamonds.
Boko, who swept to power in a surprise victory last October, was seen as less combative in his dealings with De Beers, and quickly got the deal signed, after Masisi's delays.
But Boko's comments last week indicate a growing frustration as Botswana battles poverty and high unemployment.
He said diamonds discovered and recovered in Botswana should benefit Botswana.
"So if the diamonds are there, how is the country broke?" he said.
"Now they're not being sold. Who is selling them? De Beers. Ah, then De Beers is not doing its job. Maybe we should take over and sell them ourselves.
"That's what we should do. And that would be deemed very radical.
"But the country needs the money and it has the diamonds and somebody who's supposed to be selling the diamonds is not doing the job.
"Oh, no, and we are simply sitting on our laurels folding up our arms and hoping beyond hope …
"We will take the diamonds and see what we can do with them. They are ours. These diamonds are ours. And so before the end of this year, something very drastic in that space will happen. If it doesn't happen, we will die trying. By all means."
We have approached De Beers for comment.
Videograb of President Duma Boko in Lesotho.