Staff writer BOITSHEPO MAJUBE finds grinding poverty just a stone’s throw away from where the largest diamond in a hundred years was found. Some put the value of the latest find at around $60m. Metsiaela is the poorest settlement in the richest diamond mining region in the world.
The sun beats down on everything. Clear skies. Dust. Everything is weather-beaten including the people here. “Which diamond?” asks one of the residents, more shocked than surprised. He looks at his friend, and frowns. We are at Metsiaelela, a small shanty settlement bordering one of the richest deposits of diamonds in the world, the KA6, Boteti region, in Central Botswana. In the history of mining, this few square hundred kilometres alone has produced 7 of the world’s 40 largest diamonds. All these were produced in the last three years. But on 15th November the mining company Lucara Diamonds found a stone nearly the size of a tennis ball not far from here, at its Karowe operations.
Residents here have not heard of the large diamond. The news just has not reached this place.
This place has borne the crystalline stone that has kept the world enthralled. It may be a stone but the diamond is not just a stone. It is a magical stone that turns boyfriends and girlfriends into husbands and wives. It confers and confirms status on kings and queens, the bigger the stone the more powerful the royal. The bowels of this place may give birth to diamonds but diamonds don’t belong here. Not because this place is desolate, but for more pressing reasons – when a diamond is found here, it has to leave this place, this place of wide skies, undulating sand, thirst on your tongue and a burning sun; it has no use being here. It does not belong here to these people with their rough hands, kinky hair, torn clothes, and weather-beaten features. The last stone found here, a 1,111 carat shocker, was out of this earth in minutes, out of this place in a private jet in an hour, and some say, it left the country in a few hours.
The people of this region have not seen a diamond. While the world and Lucara Mining Company celebrates the discovery of the second largest diamond in history from its Karowe Mine, the people of Boteti, where the mine is situated, are in the dark about the discovery.
A Tale of Two Villages
This must be the richest stretch of land in the world. Experts believe there are more diamonds in this stretch of land than in areas spanning thousands of square kilometres anywhere. De Beers Prospecting, the subsidiary of De Beers, the first settler of this neighbourhood when it entered into an agreement with the state, holds the majority of exploration licenses in the this region. Debswana itself, the partnership with the Botswana Government, is currently exploiting kimberlites bodies under 3 mining licences – Orapa, Letlhakane and Damtshaa. The Canadian mid-size mining outfit Lucara Diamond Corp currently exploits the A/K6, formerly owned by Debswana, while the Firestone Diamond PLC, the London-listed outfit, is on B/K11, but holds other exploration licenses in the area.
When Debswana arrived here in the 60s there was nothing. The advent of Orapa mine, opened in 1971, and leading to Botswana’s diamond-crusted economic miracle, brought to this region unprecedented changes – Letlhakane village was born. The diamond boom spawned a village of about 25 000, mostly outsiders from Boteti region brought here by the hunt for the diamond dream. Letlhakane is a normal Botswana village – a shopping centre, hawkers by the main street, a filling station, schools and government offices. Letlhakane acts as a conduit for the mining enclaves surrounding this place, supplying labour. But to some extent they also exist independently of this village. These oases of mining could do without it, but the town couldn’t survive a day without the mines.
Letlhakane came here with the mines, the original residents of this expanse of land, Basarwa, were pushed away by land grabbers who brandished mining licences to the very edge of the economic mainstream. About 10 kilometres away lies a place where Basarwa now find themselves – Metsiaela. Located on the outskirts of Letlhakane, Metsiaela, which translates to ‘flowing water’, is the only location in the village without any services, no sewage, no electricity, no lights, and no roads. It is the wild wild west of the modern Botswana. Matsiaela is the home to generations of Basarwa who saw developments come into Letlhakane, but never their settlement.
Matsiaela, which houses over a thousand families, would be every Motswana’s shame. Basarwa in Metsiaela live like animals. There are shebeens everywhere and they sell cheap homebrewed liquor, maybe a sign that bye-law officers do not bother to visit the poverty-riddled area. Circumstances force young Basarwa girls into prostitution at an early age, as, of course, there is a ready clientele in the moneyed miners whom they can only envy.
Some believe diamonds were a curse for the area as it brought more people to its doorstep, suffocating scare resources in the process. One would expect residents of Boteti to be well-off and fully employed given hundreds of millions of pula in value that leaves the bowels of the area in the form of diamonds. Instead, the region resembles mostly a shanty town, seemingly uncomfortable shacks, with poverty written all over.
There was no elaborate celebration of the second biggest diamond in the world having been found when Business Weekly & Review visited the village.
Community members had difficulty understanding what the noise was about. Member of Parliament for Boteti East Sethomo Lelatitswe also got to hear about the diamond from his cousin in London who happened to read about the diamond in the news. “Just like everyone else in the country I have been reading about the diamond in the media,” Lelatisitswe revealed.
When Lucara discovered the gemstone, which could attract over P1 billion, the Canadian media was the first to be notified of the discovery. Botswana like the rest of the world only saw the news on the internet. It also appeared that the diamond spent only a few hours in Botswana, before it was flown to Antwerp.
This publication asked Lucara Chief Operating Officer Paul Day why Botswana and the local media were not given an opportunity to tell the world news that such a diamond was discovered in Botswana, rather than to have the world tell Botswana its own story.
“We are compelled by regulatory requirements to issue a press statement from Canada, where the company is primarily listed. The whole idea was not to isolate Batswana on the achievement, but to rather follow regulatory protocols,” He responded.
Given the Karowe mines endowment with larger stones, Lucara plans to spend between P150m to P180m on additional large diamond recovery processes at the mine. The company told this publication that the current process circuit was designed to recover diamonds of up to 1000 carats, but based on the recent recoveries of very large diamonds, and expected continuation of recoveries of exceptionally large diamonds in the south lobe, there is need to integrate an additional large diamond recovery process.
Could this vindicate the Survival International campaign?
Survival International (SI) has been at war with the government of Botswana over the latter’s treatment of the Basarwa. The Basarwa community in the Boteti region remains marginalized and lives in abject poverty despite the region’s diamond endowment.
Immediately after the discovery of the second largest gem in history, SI warned that despite ever-increasing profits from multinational diamond mining operations in the country, Basarwa communities continue to suffer. SI further said the second largest diamond in history was discovered close to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), the recognized ancestral homeland of the Basarwa. “Botswana has been keen to publicize its considerable diamond-derived wealth to the media, but coverage has so far ignored the on-going violations of the Basarwa rights,” the advocacy group said.
This publication talked to two Basarwa men, Onkemetse Bashi and Modiredi Baratamang, to establish opportunities available to them in the vast diamond mining industry of the region. With their settlement only 10 kilometres away from the famed Karowe Mine, the duo said they have walked the distance every day since the mine’s inception to look for employment but none was available. Bashi is an O’level graduate and Baratamang holds a certificate in Information Technology. The duo were sitting together with others under a tree. This reporter thought they were sheltering from the sun, but realized that this was actually were they lived, under the tree. The group had little to eat. “At least buy us some cabbage,” one asked this reporter.
Bashi shared his perception about of mining companies: “These companies [the mining companies] only come here to give us second hands clothes. In some instances they come here to give children left overs from their canteens and schools. That’s not assistance.”
Community leaders
Community leaders from the area blame government for the deplorable situation Basarwa live in. Even the area Member of Parliament (MP) has accused government of absconding from its duties. “Basarwa need role models, someone who could carry the whole clan out of poverty. Unfortunately, government only assists them when they are young only to dump them when they reach young adulthood. Government should assist them to get employment and settle well in life,” said Letatisitswe.
Victor Thanke of Zowa Development Trust has argued that whatever “good” the mines seem to be doing in the area is centered on portraying a good image of themselves. “Their initiatives are a public relations exercise, they don’t help the community,” he charged.
Further, Thanke pointed out that the presence of mining houses has created social problems for the area such as teenage pregnancy and alcohol abuse. He accused the mines of having turned down their proposals for funding programmes that were aimed at uplifting the community.
MP Lelatitswe shared Thanke’s sentiments. “They [Mines] should be doing more, unfortunately their efforts are not enough. Our area should be treated differently because of its significance as the backbone of the economy. Every Motswana comes here for a job and that comes with increased responsibility despite little infrastructure in the region,” he lamented.
Mining companies and the Corporate Social Investment (CSI) challenge
Community representatives have argued that the two mining giants, Debswana and Karowe, are not doing enough for the communities of Boteti. They pointed out that the mines only use their CSI projects to protect their images.
The mining companies have, however, countered the accusations. Lucara has boasted that they continue to progress as a responsible corporate citizen through their field practices, management systems in Environment, Health and Safety, and contributions to the communities where they operate. “Corporate responsibility is increasingly becoming central to our strategic and operational thinking. We cannot sustain good financial and operational performance without simultaneously achieving our objectives in health and safety, environmental stewardship, human resource development, and community investment,” the company said.
On the other hand Debswana has stated that their CSI programme objectives are to create a legacy of prosperity, sustainability and empower the communities and the lives of Batswana, to ultimately ensure that Debswana does not leave the mining communities worse off than when the company began operating in those areas. Debswana also states that to maintain a profitable business environment and enhance Debswana reputation and the well-being of the communities in which it operates as well as the country in general.