Author

Roman Grynberg
  • Botswana diamond workers bleed

    It is the biggest employer in the village and the consequences will be felt for years to come – about 2 000 people are dependents of those employed in the industry. With a total reported employment in the diamond cutting and polishing industry...

  • Would a �cartel-lite� or ODEC for Diamonds work?

    Given the P25 billion in expansion announced by Debswana in Maun last week costs of extraction will no doubt rise and while production may continue government revenues will surely decline. The obvious question is whether there is another  way...

  • Botswana�s new fund for future generations

    They say that the best kept secrets are always in plain sight, especially for those who look, but never read. So it is with the most profound change in Botswana’s economic policy for decades. No-one really noticed or perhaps didn’t even...

  • South Africa � Deflated Egos and the Trade Deficit

    Some numbers actually do make people and countries change their whole way of thinking about their relations with other people as well as themselves. Take the GDP of China as compared to that of the world’s number one economy, the USA....

  • Botswana�s increasing state ownership in the mining sector

    The report was important and as I calmed myself I thought ...how pathetic, only an economist can wake up sweating at 3 am over the results of a mining taxation report. But the report has enormous implications for Botswana and all of Africa. It was...

  • What will happen to Botswana as the diamonds run out?

    The studies also look at what needs to be done in the coming years. Some of the predictions regarding the decline in mining revenues and resultant decline in living standards need to be confronted for the nation to advance. There is increasing...

  • Mondelez chewing gum leaves bitter taste in Southern Africa

    But in 2010 the UK food giant Cadbury was eaten by an even bigger fish, the American firm, Kraft  Foods. Kraft had in turn been acquired by the US tobacco giant Philip Morris in 1988. With this rather unfortunate direct ownership of Kraft, a...

  • What China is doing to Africa

    This week Botswana’s emerging as well as existing copper and base metals firms along with government are meeting in Maun to discuss the road ahead for beneficiation in the country. Two things are pretty clear. The copper companies will...

  • South Africa finally cracks

    Now just imagine if President Masire had leaned across the table in 1982 and said to Shell ‘Look, we know that these coal deposits and the railroad  across the Kalahari are not viable at this price but we know that building a new railway...

  • Lies and beauty contests

    But in developed countries the statistics that are provided by agencies responsible are often very questionable and depend on political interests of those in power.  A statistic is an attempt to capture a very complex reality in one number and...

  • Synthetic diamonds and the Kimberly Process � fighting the last war

    For a decade now the world has been engaged in what has been seen as a battle against blood diamonds i.e. diamonds that have been used to fund wars in countries like Sierra Leone, DRC and Angola. The Kimberly process, has been a unique but...

  • Railway wars � TKO for TKR in the First Round?

    Towards the end of March it was all smiles at Walvis Bay amongst those attending the joint Namibia-Botswana signing ceremony of the bilateral agreement to build the Transkalahari Railway (TKR). The Minister of Minerals, Energy and Water...

  • Mr Matambo - so what do I tell Peggy?

    Peggy is coming to the end of her studies at school and  she really needs to decide what she is going to do with her life. Like so many children of her age she really wants to go to university and study something that will help her and...

  • Will Tsodilo Resources save Ngamiland?

    There are known and established copper/nickel and silver mines in the south of Ngamiland en route to Ghanzi which are being developed by Discovery Metals (Boseto). The deposits held by Cupric Canyon, a private equity firm with close...

  • BPC and Eskom � will the dinosaurs disappear sooner or later?

      Of course predictions about the future are always built on assumptions and it was assumed at the time that access to telephony had to be based on building expensive land lines- there was simply nothing else. Time and technology...

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