As I see it

MICHAEL DINGAKE | Tuesday February 23, 2010 00:00

Talk of creating a Frankenstein monster, the BDP government shortly after independence created this monster for Batswana in the form of Debswana. Let us not quibble.The founding fathers meant well. Botswana is rich in mineral resources, diamonds, copper and other minerals; the presence of these minerals underground were known long before independence; chiefs like Tshekedi, visionaries they were, feared to have these exploited then because their exploitation could compromise farther our precarious colonial status. Tshekedi dreamt of a day when we would be free politically to exploit these for ourselves as Batswana.

The dawn of independence brought the nominal right to govern ourselves without the economic means to do it to our full satisfaction. We were as poor as a church mouse; as the refrain goes, 're ne re le mo legoeleleng!' Since we had no capital, nor entrepreneurship we were happy to enter into a marriage of convenience with the De Beers Company, they had the capital, entrepreneurship and an uncontested  market to woo us into this romantic and diamond-studded union. The prospecting phase having assured the company that the return on capital would be fabulous, De Beers was ready to guarantee us some prospects of an illusion of swift economic development.  We could not ask questions nor complain when De Beers 'generously' agreed to a 50/50 equitable shareholding. Under the agreement 'Batswana' were entitled to dividends, taxes and royalties.

Debswana was our mint! Eh? The country's GDP rocketed. Our economy grew at an average of eight or nine percent; the GDP per capita in a small population hovering around a million went up like a meteor; the developed countries and development aid institutions terminated aid to Botswana justifying the action on the false premises that Botswana was rich and therefore Batswana were rich.

Yea, diamond mining has made a few of us stinkingly rich while the majority of Batswana continue to wallow in abject poverty. Debswana directorship, and its management staff agents, its hangers-on in the form of political puppets together with relatives and friends of this small circle have indeed become super rich, arrogant and corrupt. That is why the slush funds to finance ruling party elections campaign, that is why refusal of the ruling party to have a transparent public funding of political parties. The BDP  cannot complain with things as they are; nor can De Beers and its subsidiary, Debswana; that is why the company agents are brazen enough to tell everybody to take a walk when the Masiregate scandal erupts. The company has no regrets for undermining our democracy, for money laundering and corrupting the ruling party and its president. How can they regret? When everybody is shocked about the scandal that rips off the mask from the hypocritical face of Botswana (read BDP) as a shining example of democracy, they don't regret because to them democracy is but a rhetorical farce not to be entertained by the De Beers family. With them it is fine to corrupt the rulers of developing nations, for in their warped minds Batswana are natural objects of colonization, oppression, enslavement and exploitation; moreover what do natives know about economic welfare? And when a neo-colonial puppet appears to lose the original magnetic power to continue to attract super-profits for Debswana, then the puppet becomes dispensable to be dumped and replaced with another with potential.

Debswana does not care one hoot for democracy. Neither does the BDP. The two can conspire without scruples to secret one-party (BDP) funding scenario, instead of a transparent public political party funding. Both Debswana and BDP do not believe in eliminating poverty. It is fine as long as they sing from the same hymn of job creation and eradication of poverty, to lull the masses without meaning it in the slightest.

We live in a world of conflict, instability and war. We know who are responsible. The De Beers, their subsidiaries and their political puppets. The Angolans long after their independence could not develop their country and themselves because of the Savimbi factor. Behind Savimbi was the power of the illicit diamonds mopped up by the De Beers agents, experts in money laundering as we now know from deals with the head of state in Botswana.

How did De Beers escape the so-called Kimberley process investigations? Why were they not found guilty of 'blood diamonds' while they have been found by American courts to have violated their anti-competition laws? If De Beers had a virtual monopoly of the world diamond market could it have been possible for Jonas Savimbi to bypass the diamond bloodhounds of De Beers to sell to some Lilliputian diamond company in Bylerus or Australia? The verdict on this simple matter of who bought or 'mopped up' illicit diamonds which financed Jonas  Savimbi's war is that the monopolist diamond company is guilty as charged. This must make us think. By colluding with elements of the ruling party and obstructing a development of a democratic process in Botswana, De Beers will yet lead this country to strife and conflict. Batswana may be submissive, docile and passive at the moment, I bet they will not always remain so. While De Beers and subsidiaries make all the profits they want and feed the crumbs to a few greedy ones who are prepared to sell their country's heritage for a mess of potage, Batswana must warn De Beers, Enough!

Every five years Batswana go to the polls to elect a new administration. They are duped to believe that this is democracy - government of the people by the people for the people. No, it is not. We are ruled by the multi-nationals whose interest is super profits and more super profits. Debswana has no regrets that it undermines our multi-party democracy by ensuring that only the BDP rules Botswana for eternity to guarantee the company super-profits.  After years of fighting diamond beneficiation, which could have eliminated unemployment and poverty and empowered Batswana with skills through quality education, kicking and screaming the company has been forced to concede ten percent beneficiation of Botswana diamonds Too little, too late!