Diamonds’ sweet spell from Russian sanctions could sour
Monday, October 03, 2022 | 400 Views |

Economic bedrock: Diamonds have powered the economy back from the COVID-19 slump PIC: MININGMX
On Thursday, Statistics Botswana released second quarter Gross Domestic Product figures showing that the economy expanded by 5.6 percent over the period, helped by diamond trading activities, as global industry demand continued to warm up.
In fact, Bank of Botswana data also released on Thursday indicates that Debswana sold P41.4 billion worth of rough diamonds between January and August this year, eclipsing the P38.1 billion in sales over the whole of 2021.
Particular trepidations lie with the seemingly embedded nature of embellishing tender sums, in most cases without the barest minimum of authority. The worrying thing is that the inflated amounts run into millions of pula across the government ministries and departments. The Auditor General’s report of March ending 2022, which we cover extensively in this edition, paints a gloomy picture on management of the government coffers. It depicts the...