Debswana - Celebrating 50 years of mining the resource, enriching the nation!
Friday, July 26, 2019
It is the abundant foresight of leadership committed to the company and its values that has seen the venture traverse 50 years, with promises of more ahead. To paraphrase President Mogae, the economy of Botswana rests on a bedrock of diamonds.
On July 20th, 2019, against the backdrop of a full moon, Debswana weathered the cold to celebrate 50 years, incognisant to the date also marking the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong announcing, “The Eagle has landed”. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy put a monumental goal before Congress – ‘to land man on the moon and return him safely to Earth’. It would take eight years to reach the moon. NASA, an agency of the United States government responsible for the space programme, ate $25 billion before achieving that goal. On July 20th 1969, astronaut Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the moon.
It is a clear signal that the government’s purse is empty and that our own behaviour has left veterinary officials fighting with one hand tied behind their backs. We have been here before. During COVID-19, many of us thought we knew better. We ignored simple rules, we carried on as if the danger was someone else’s problem, and the virus took lives and left our economy on its knees. We are still broke from that experience. Yet now, with FMD...