Diamonds will not last forever
Secretary to four presidents Molosiwa Selepeng shares his memories
When the Bechuanaland British Protectorate became independent on September 30 1966, henceforth to be known as Botswana, one analyst quipped that the Batswana must be either “very foolish or very brave”.
His fears were not unfounded. At that time Botswana was one of the poorest countries in the world, with roughly 10km of tarred road, no infrastructure in place and no known mineral deposits to finance development.
At that time it was also slap-bang in the unenviable geo-political situation of being between two countries controlled by two whiteminority governments: South Africa and Southern Rhodesia. The man who led Botswana to independence, then president Sir Seretse Khama (1966-1980), had also irked both the British and South African governments by marrying a white woman.
The challenge for the founding fathers would be to nurture the country to prove that it could survive as a multi-racial democracy.
Ambassador Selepeng retired after a stint as High Commissioner; he was there as Botswana struggled to survive economically and politically against all odds. He modestly attributes Botswana’s leap from one of the world’s poorest countries to a middle-income country as being due to teamwork.
Selepeng recently retired after a stint as high commissioner in Australia, but before that he held several jobs in the civil service, including the powerful post of permanent secretary to the president.
His career in the civil service started in the early 1970s after he graduated from university and joined the foreign affairs ministry. He later became senior private secretary to Khama, a post he retained under then president Ketumile Masire (1990-1998).
He says: “In my career I have worked for four presidents, interacting not only with senior government officials and government ministers but also the private sector. I contributed to the development of this country by working as a member of a team.”
Challenges in the early years
Selepeng says the challenge facing Botswana and Khama in 1966 was to make independence a reality.
“During the first six years we were not able to balance our recurrent budget. So for those six years, our recurrent budget was subsidised by the British to the tune of 50%. But in 1972 we managed to balance our budget, so we were progressing.”
He also notes that Khama’s other challenge “was of course, political, because of our geo-political situation, surrounded by South Africa and Rhodesia, and as the only democratic country in the region surrounded by minority, whiteruled countries.”
Khama’s policy was to not have anything to do with the apartheid government in terms of diplomatic relations, but Botswana nevertheless had to maintain economic relations. This was because Rhodesia Railways ran through the country and the country depended on it, as well as depending on South Africa for imports and exports of goods and services. “We traded heavily with South Africa, notwithstanding the fact that we did not recognise the apartheid government.”
Khama was able to balance our independence against the challenges of being in a minority ruled geo-political environment. He had to be pragmatic because “we walked a tight [financial] rope”.
“We needed to get aid from other countries and we joined the NonAligned Movement and were able to attract direct foreign investment, particularly from European countries.”
Selepeng praises especially the Scandinavian countries for the role they played in helping to develop the country. They concentrated on providing infrastructure for the provision of clean water, construction of roads and setting up the health system.
He adds that the South African private sector also came in to invest, as most companies were subsidiaries of British and American firms. The British companies were particularly prominent in the construction industry.
Due to its geo-political situation, Botswana attracted a number of refugees both from South Africa and Rhodesia. “In 1969 Botswana had 4 000 refugees, but by 1975 we had 25 000. The South Africans saw them as terrorists and from the 80s launched a series of attacks. The Rhodesian regime also launched attacks in the north, engaging in what they called ‘hot pursuit incursions’.
“At this time we did not have an army, so in 1977 we formed the Botswana Defence Force, particularly because of the situation in the north. This was out of necessity, to protect our citizens from attacks by Southern Rhodesia. But the biggest raid was by the South Africans in the 1980s. On June 14 1985 the South Africans launched an attack in which 25 South African refugees were murdered in their sleep.”
Botswana had to rely on especially the US to prevent the recurrence of such attacks. Selepeng explains that Botswana was greatly assisted by American condemnation of such attacks; this helped to restrain the South Africa government.
“Every time we got intelligence of a planned South Africa raid we would share this with the Americans and they would issue a statement saying Botswana is a peaceful country and did not deserve any unprovoked attacks. I know that on several occasions this did prevent potential attacks.”
Discovery of diamonds
The discovery of diamonds helped boost Botswana to its present position as a middle-income country, but Selepeng says one of the challenges the country faced was generated by the controversy over so called “blood diamonds”, used to fuel civil wars across Africa.
Developing the diamond mines was not easy because “we did not have any capital, so De Beers came in with money, personnel and know-how”. They became partners in setting up the diamond mines in Orapa in central Botswana, and at Jwaneng in the southern part of the country.
“By 1975 we discovered that they were making too much profit, and that the deal we had entered into was unbalanced. So we renegotiated to get 50%. There was the famous article in the Financial Times of London in which they described Botswana as having joined the ‘rapacious’ club. Our High Commissioner in London wrote a rebuttal, pointing out that we were merely asking for a fair share.
The challenge for the founding fathers would be to nurture the country to prove that it could survive as a multi-racial democracy