Mmegi

God’s gift that keeps on giving

History made: First president, Sir Seretse Khama, De Beers chairman, Harry Oppenheimer and De Beers Resident Director, Louis Nchindo at the opening ceremony of Orapa Mine in 1970 PIC: NATIONAL ARCHIVES & RECORDS
History made: First president, Sir Seretse Khama, De Beers chairman, Harry Oppenheimer and De Beers Resident Director, Louis Nchindo at the opening ceremony of Orapa Mine in 1970 PIC: NATIONAL ARCHIVES & RECORDS

Emboldened by having survived and thrived through decades of booms and busts, Debswana is riding out the market slowdown. The country’s most important economic actor is also celebrating 55 years of impact this year, writes MBONGENI MGUNI

Carried from the Earth’s core over thousands of kilometres by geological processes, the fact that three of these small shiny stones were spotted in Motloutse River in 1959 is a miracle.

An even bigger miracle, however, is that after a journey over millions of years, the discovery was made at a time when value could be assigned to the stones. Had they arrived a 1,000 years earlier, diamonds would likely have gone unspotted or if they had been seen, they would been disregarded.

Editor's Comment
The State apparatus must be sanitised

When the State cannot rely on its own machinery to pursue suspected wrongdoing, repairing that machinery must become a national priority.The establishment of a Special Investigations and Asset Recovery Task Force may help government respond to the immediate challenge. However, Botswana cannot afford to leave the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) and the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) struggling whilst building...

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