Masisi takes aim at UDC, De Beers :: Mmegi Online

After his own party kept the De Beers diamond deal a secret, former president and outgoing leader of the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) Mokgweetsi Masisi wants the new Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) government to share some details from the recently agreed sales agreement.

Addressing the media yesterday, the former President of Botswana accused De Beers of funding his removal from power in order to avoid paying tax. Masisi said they negotiated the best partnership deal ever globally to deal with a multinational and a country when negotiating with De Beers. He said throughout their interaction with De Beers, a lot of assault was directed at them by the opposition parties then.

He said despite this, they arrived at an agreement to a formula which would result in, after 10 years, annual growth of allocation of all diamonds mined in all Debswana mines shared between De Beers and Government of Botswana.

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