Botswana must focus on education as gems drop

Country celebrates its 50th independence anniversary this week

WHEN David Magang opened Botswana’s first domestic law firm shortly after independence in 1966, he and his country were starting from scratch.

Since then, both he and the former British protectorate, which celebrates its 50th birthday this week, have travelled a huge distance based largely on Botswana’s vast diamond wealth.

With those riches running low, the outlook is less rosy.

Trained in London, Magang was one of two local lawyers – the rest being British or South African – while Botswana, an expanse of arid scrubland the size of France, had 7km of tarred road and a capital that amounted to little more than a railway station.

“On the face of it Botswana was very poor – good for hunting and not much else. It was basically an agrarian, subsistence society,” Magang said. “All we had was a railway, and that was owned by South Africa and Rhodesia.”

The 77-year-old lawyer is now chairman of a luxury golf and housing estate on the outskirts of Gaborone – still known by some as “The Station” – while Botswana is the world’s biggest diamond producer and one of Africa’s richest and most stable countries. National wealth

A visitor holds a diamond during a visit to the De Beers Global Sightholder Sales in Gaborone. Botswana knows that the breakneck growth fuelled by diamonds in the past will not be repeated.