Debswana targets 30% cut in costs
Mbongeni Mguni | Monday June 29, 2026 06:00
For decades, Debswana’s board has resisted pressure and advice from executives to diversify the group’s focus beyond diamonds. Besides investments in insurance, education, and a pension fund, Debswana has largely remained focused on the precious stones over the years.
On Tuesday, executives revealed the Ya Masa strategy, which for the first time includes board approval to expand the group’s mandate, whilst also tapping into existing assets, including expertise, infrastructure, talent and others.
Managing Director, Andrew Motsomi, said much of the effort in the new strategy would be on tightening Debswana down into a lean, highly efficient entity, thus providing the base required for the expanded mandate.
“The question before us is not whether Debswana has been successful,” he said on Tuesday at an event to mark the group’s 57th anniversary. “Instead, it is how do we ensure that the Debswana that transformed Botswana over the past 57 years remains relevant and impactful for generations to come. “The greatest threat to a successful organisation is believing that yesterday's formula will solve tomorrow's challenges.”
According to the new strategy, Debswana wants to trim its annual operational costs from P9 billion to P6 billion, whilst lowering its stay-in-business costs to P1.2 billion. Stay-in-business costs involve spending on the mines and processing plants required to continue the extraction of diamonds.
Debswana’s strategy and plans have been divided into three pathways, which range from stabilising the business and surviving, to creating the platform for additional growth, and finally moving quicker on the additional value creation streams in the diversified business.
“This strategy is not a departure from our legacy,” Motsomi said. “It is an evolution of it. “The same pioneering spirit that built the names Orapa, Jwaneng, Letlhakane, and Damtshaa is the same spirit that must now guide us into the future.”
Debswana Chief Operating Officer, Koolatotse Koolatotse, challenged the group’s workers to innovate around where spending cuts can be made and also prepare for an uncomfortable period.
“Coming down from P9 billion to P6 billion requires cutting out a lot of comforts, and we have to be extremely brave,” he said. “That P6 billion is going to come from the fuel, the tyres, costs of maintenance and others, but I can promise you that Debswana is not going anywhere.”
Debswana has already conducted two voluntary separation schemes for staff in the past three years, which have led to the departure of hundreds of workers.
Responding to De Beers’ call for spending cuts across the group, Debswana lowered its operating costs from P10 billion to P9 billion and is now pushing further.
Koolatotse said the requirement to move to P6 billion could not be negotiated.
“This company used to run with P10 billion, but we reduced it to P9 billion, and our plan is to get it to P6 billion. “If we don’t get there, the company closes because the money we make will be equal to the money we spend. “There’s no one who should be running a business like that.”
Debswana and the broader natural diamonds industry are in the third year of a record downturn, caused by a mix of structural and cyclical factors. However, experts have increasingly been noting signs of recovery this year, particularly in the larger stones.