We do not regret bailing out Masire-De Beers

Brian Benza
Staff Writer | Thursday February 11, 2010 00:00

 

De Beers have admitted that they gave financial assistance under questionable circumstances to Masire while he was still in office and are also said to have funded a Consultancy Research that was ultimately credited  with assisting the Botswana Democratic Party(BDP) retain power in the 1999 elections.

Speaking to Business Week in Gaborone this week, De Beers group executive director in charge of   Marketing, Communications and the Forevermark said although they could have acted with more transparency on the issue they do not regret bailing the cash strapped former president or funding the research as they were trying to protect their interest in the country. ' The Botswana government has over the years created an environment which is easy for us to operate in, in terms of the rule of rule and democracy and  this is why we have been supportive of the government,' he said.  Asked to comment on the fact that such donations to a single ruling party or individual distort the democratic process, Lussier admitted that, in the future De Beers will look at how it can support the whole democratic process and not just one party. ' Its not unnatural for one company to support the views of one political party, but I suppose, as we have already put in place a transparency policy in 2007, going forward we should look at ways of   supporting the democratic process and not one political party. 'However I cannot say what was the view 25 years ago when this incident took place. Things were not so transparent back then,' he said.

Lussier, who is also the Chairperson for De Beers Botswana, added that a look around the world in the most vibrant democracies such as the USA, Japan, and some European countries show that companies do make donations to political parties and 'interestingly in the USA two weeks ago the Supreme court abolished a law which put a ceiling on the funds that companies can donate to political parties'.  'As a rule, De Beers now does not participate in party politics and exceptionally if we make donations to parties where we think its important for the flourishing of democracy, we  will declare all those  in our report to society and we have not made any such donation since 2007'.

Former De Beers Botswana CEO Sheila Khama added her voice to the defense saying' companies around the world have a right to support parties whose policies promote a conducive environment for investment. 'Perhaps, we could have been more transparent about it but we certainly do not regret it,' she said.

Lussier went on to say that De Beers did not in any way get favours from government after financing the research whose results ensured the Botswana Democratic party stayed in power.   'All the negotiations that have taken place since then, in as much as they were tough, government always got what they wanted and we have honoured every contractual obligation that we had with the government. The only issue that has been raised is that of beneficiation and there were reasons why we could not go ahead with it 20 years ago,' he said.  Lussier claims that beneficiation could not take place 20 years ago because it was probably going to fail and if that had happened it was going to impact heavily on Debswana.

The De Beers Botswana chairman says that Beneficiation is going to be successful this time around because of the improvement in technology and communication.

' The use of technology today in cutting diamond is way ahead than it was 20 years ago. 'That time, for someone to cut the sort and size of stone that is being cut today in Botswana, you ought to have spent your whole life in the industry.

'But Technology has meant that now we can take someone with three years experience and they will cut the big stones as good as someone who has 20 years experience,' he added.