It’s not blood diamonds, it’s diamonds for good
Friday, May 01, 2026 | 210 Views |
Heart of the matter: Natural diamonds have demonstrably been transformation for Botswana PIC: LUCARA
The year is 2006, President Festus Mogae is dealing with two pandemics, one being the HIV/AIDS scourge the other being a pandemic yet to fully manifest; the narrative of Africa’s diamonds being blood diamonds.
Those who followed the matters closely will tell you that De Beers had to pump billions in advertising to correct the narrative, while at the same time Mogae took Botswana’s voice to the world stage, refusing to allow a single story to define an entire continent.
Whilst many citizens put trust in their leaders that they are tackling one of the worst curses that can befall a country, the public has lost trust after all the cases seemed not to go anywhere.As the saying goes, ‘corruption is a cancer that eats away at the fabric of society’; corruption affects effective governance.Corruption affects delivery of services to the public and also crumbles most systems meant to assist citizens who are very...