Botswana not ready to walk away from De Beers - Gaolathe
The President of the Alliance for Progressives, Ndaba Gaolathe says it would be a blunder of great proportions for Botswana to walk away from De Beers without a plan.
Delivering his expert opinion on the issue of the ongoing Botswana/De Beers diamond trading negotiations, Gaolathe explained that one of the big issues with the deal between Botswana and De Beers is that it is secretive one.
Moreover, Gaolathe indicated that the government should reveal how much it cost Botswana to acquire the 25 per cent stake in HB Antwerp.
Gaolathe said the nation must take responsibility to develop citizens, banking institutions and other key institutions to be able to accommodate the much-wanted growth in the diamond sector.
He said that Botswana is getting higher prices than it should because of De Beers, warning that if the country walks away from De Beers, the company may become hostile and the economy of the nation will suffer.
Gaolathe explained that Botswana needs to be able to determine prices, be able to exploit and squeeze the best prices and anticipate demand and supply among other things if the nation is to leave the partnership.
“We have not built our technology, our intellectual proprietary soft-wares to navigate the processes and the market nuances,” Gaolathe explained, adding that with proper technology the country can stand alone.
“There are ways Debswana can continue mining without De Beers, but Botswana would not be ready to secure the right prices at the right scale globally,” Gaolathe said.
He said that if DeBeers chooses to be hostile and prices fall globally, Anglo-America would still successfully swim as a wealthy company given De Beers is only a small part of the larger Anglo-American family.
“Personally I don’t think they should pull out of the deal, if they do the economy would collapse,” Ndaba warned.
He noted that it would take a while for the economy to bounce back if Botswana ditched De Beers.