Mending ties: De Beers, Botswana hold hands again :: Mmegi Online

The Botswana/De Beers relationship began as a closely guarded secret that grew into a partnership that built a nation and survived presidents. Today, with synthetics eating rough diamonds’ lunch, the Siamese twins are walking the recovery path hand-in-hand. TIMOTHY LEWANIKA writes

A few years ago, Botswana used gruesome words to describe De Beers, the type of words partners don’t say to each other even in the heat of the moment. At the time, it seemed like the relationship between De Beers and the government had soured beyond mending, but time and a change of guard at the Government Enclave seem to have mended the country’s most important commercial relationship.

Recent diamond campaigns internationally have seen De Beers and government walking side by side, with De Beers’ executives and government officials singing from the same hymn book, condemning synthetics and mounting pressure on Western markets to turn back to rough diamonds again.

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Mending ties: De Beers, Botswana hold hands again

The Botswana/De Beers relationship began as a closely guarded secret that grew into a partnership that built a nation and survived presidents. Today, with synthetics eating rough diamonds’ lunch, the Siamese twins are walking the recovery path hand-in-hand. TIMOTHY LEWANIKA writes

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