Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi warned on Sunday February 12th that his country could sever ties with South African diamond giant De Beers if talks to renegotiate a sales deal go unfavorable for his country.
The 2011 sale agreement governing the terms of trade for diamonds produced by Debswana – a 50-50 joint venture between the government and De Beers – expired in 2021.
It was extended by the parties, who cited the coronavirus outbreak as the reason for the delay in concluding the negotiations, and will end on 30 June 2023.
Speaking at a rally in his home village of Moshupa, some 65 kilometers from the capital Gaborone, Masisi warned: “If we don’t reach a win-win situation, each side will have to pack up and go home.”
Under the 2011 deal, miner De Beers received 90 percent of the rough diamonds produced, while Botswana, Africa’s biggest diamond producer, received 10 percent. In 2020, Botswana’s share increased to 25 percent.
In 2020, Botswana’s share increased to 25 percent. Today, “we got a glimpse of how the diamond market works and found that we get less than we should,” Masisi said.
“We also discovered that our diamonds are making a lot of profit and that the agreement (from 2011) had not been favorable to us”, added the leader.
