When it comes to their relationship with De Beers, President Duma Boko and his predecessor Mokgweetsi Masisi are serving pure ‘frenemy energy.’
In Botswana’s plugged-in political circles, polite company knows better than to drop De Beers’ name around the two adversaries without risking an immediate, icy shift in the room.
Yet, when the wire transfer cleared last week, crediting the newly minted Diamond for Development Fund with one billion Pula (USD 73 million), a rare moment of shared satisfaction echoed across Botswana’s political divide. Both Boko and Masisi had reason to smile. The former president, watching his fiercely defended vision finally come to life, and the current president watching a massive financial asset land securely on his watch without a single political casualty.
It was more than just a massive financial windfall for Botswana’s diamond-dependent economy, it was a masterclass in the quiet mechanics of statecraft.
Behind the historic transaction’s standard bureaucratic handshakes and corporate press releases lies a remarkably human story of two political adversaries inadvertently working in tandem. Masisi drew the bold, nationalistic blueprint in 2023, aggressively rewriting the rules of engagement with De Beers to ensure local resources benefited local people. Three years later, it was President Boko who took the baton, infusing the process with reassuring diplomacy that turned a fiery political promise into last week’s cold, hard cash.
For President Boko, the moment was also a highly personal, resounding victory over a narrative of impending crisis. Inheriting a complex, unfinished diamond pact from his bitter political rival, whose fiery, nationalistic rhetoric had pushed negotiations with De Beers to the absolute brink, could have easily led to legislative gridlock or international investor panic.
Many wondered if Boko would tear up Masisi’s hard-fought blueprint out of political spite, or if De Beers would use the transition to claw back concessions. Instead, by smoothly facilitating the rollout of the fund and welcoming the board to Gaborone, Boko didn’t just preserve the peace, he co-opted his predecessor’s crowning achievement.
For a global audience watching Botswana’s historic democratic transition, this seamless handoff of a multi-billion-pula corporate deal proved that while political regimes may change, the bedrock of Botswana’s economic stability remains entirely unshakeable. Boko signaled to nervous international markets that while Botswana’s leadership had changed, its status as a sanctuary of democratic stability, predictable governance, and safe foreign investment remained completely untouchable.
De Beers’ last week’s historic payout of the first USD 73 million was not a sudden act of corporate charity. Far from it. The windfall was forged in the blistering political theater of 2023, a direct dividend of a grueling negotiation process that pushed the boundaries of public statecraft. That was the year the global mining sector sat stunned by the fierce, unapologetic stance of then-President Masisi, who repeatedly pushed the nation’s foundational partnership to the absolute edge. The global mining sector was stunned. For more than half a century, the partnership between Botswana government and De Beers through their joint venture, Debswana, had been conducted in hushed tones behind closed boardroom doors.
Masisi tore up that traditional playbook. Taking his message directly to public rallies across the country, he passionately argued that the status quo was no longer enough. He insisted that Botswana deserved more than the ‘crumbs’ of its own natural wealth, boldly threatening to walk away from the partnership if a radically overhauled sales agreement could not be reached.
It was a high-risk gamble that captured the imagination of the nation. By mid-2023, Masisi’s relentless pressure had achieved the unthinkable, an agreement-in-principle that would progressively scale up the state-owned Okavango Diamond Company’s (ODC) share of rough diamond allocations from 25% to an unprecedented 50% over a decade. Crucially, De Beers also committed to anchoring a brand-new economic diversification vehicle-pledging BWP 10 billion over ten years, starting with a first-year injection of BWP 1 billion.
Yet, as the nation prepared for the historic 2024 general elections, the final, legally binding fine print remained incomplete. The blueprint was drawn, but the actual pipeline to move the money from London to Gaborone had not yet been built.
When Boko and the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) coalition won the October 2024 elections, it marked the first time since independence in 1966 that the ruling party had changed hands. In many resource-rich corners of the globe, a political transition of this magnitude spells immediate danger for existing mega-contracts. Newly elected governments frequently succumb to the temptation of canceling their predecessors’ flagship initiatives to score easy political points or stamp their own name on the national narrative.
Botswana, however, chose a path of institutional grace. Upon stepping into the Office of the President, Boko was immediately confronted with an economic headwind. The global natural diamond market was enduring a cyclical downturn, squeezed by macroeconomic pressures and the rapid rise of lab-grown alternatives. Debswana’s sales were dropping, and the national treasury required swift, decisive action.
Recognizing that Masisi’s public brinkmanship had already served its purpose by locking in De Beers’ commitments, Boko executed a brilliant tactical shift. He pivoted from public ultimatums to corporate diplomacy. Boko spoke eloquently of ‘civility, maturity, and sensitivity’ as the new guiding lights for foreign investment. By honoring the structural integrity of the 2023 framework, Boko sent a booming signal of confidence to international markets, that in Botswana, a sovereign promise survives the ballot box.
If the fund was a radical idea, its execution demanded an ironclad guarantee of institutional transparency. Boko and De Beers’ Al Cook bound themselves to a strict, self-imposed covenant, that not a single thebe would cross the ledger until the fund’s governance architecture was entirely bulletproof.
The breakthrough came at the JCK Las Vegas industry showcase earlier this year, where Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, the widely respected former president of the African Development Bank, was named chairperson. Adesina brought immediate, heavyweight global credibility to the vehicle. Over the subsequent months, a vetting process assembled a 10-member independent board composed of international financial experts, legal minds, and industry titans.
This deliberate delay sparked intense debate within Botswana. As the diamond slump deepened and cash reserves tightened, some argued that holding back the initial P1 billion contribution was disadvantaging a country in desperate need of an economic cushion.
But from an institutional perspective, the delay was a defensive necessity. Releasing a billion pula into a vacuum without oversight mechanisms would have invited bureaucratic inertia or misallocation. By waiting until the board was fully seated and operational in Gaborone-culminating in their meeting with President Boko, the partners ensured the fund possessed the legal and structural credibility required to achieve its ultimate goal, comforting international markets and attracting much larger pools of private, third-party global capital
With the first BWP 1 billion now officially secured in the fund’s accounts, the focus shifts to the tangible, feel-good transformations unfolding across the country. Unlike traditional mining revenues that simply filter into general budgetary support, this fund is strictly designated as ‘catalytic seed capital’ for sectors entirely divorced from diamonds.
Already, the blueprint for the fund’s first deployment is generating palpable excitement. In the sun-drenched fields of the Kgalagadi, plans are accelerating for large-scale solar energy grids aimed at positioning Botswana as a net exporter of clean electricity. In agricultural hubs like Pandamatenga, the capital is being earmarked to fund smart-farming technologies and climate-resilient irrigation, directly tackling food security. Meanwhile, in urban centers like Gaborone and Francistown, young Motswana innovators are looking forward to venture capital pools intended to supercharge the local digital economy and create the sustainable tech jobs of tomorrow. By targeting these specific, forward-looking industries, the fund is effectively doing what economists have urged for decades, using a finite underground resource to build an infinite above-ground economy.