Mogae’s stoic fight for natural diamonds
Friday, May 15, 2026 | 130 Views |
Festus Mogae
Long before lab-grown diamonds disrupted the market and long before younger consumers began questioning the relevance of natural stones, Mogae was already fighting a different battle, one that threatened not merely diamond sales, but Botswana’s entire development story.
To understand why Mogae fought so fiercely for natural diamonds, one must return to the chaos of the 1990s, when diamonds became entangled with some of Africa’s bloodiest wars.
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...