25 Jul 2024

Government is ready and willing to buy equity stake in De Beers even if it means acquiring 100 per cent of the shares that Anglo American has been seeking to sell.

This was said by the Minister of Minerals and Energy, Mr Lefoko Moagi when responding to contributions by Members of Parliament on the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill on Wednesday.

Mr Moagi said acquiring the shares would put government in a good position to seek partners that supported its vision.

“As a country we have acquired enough experience on diamond mining, so where possible we will wait for Anglo to offload those shares, and as Botswana we will buy them. We can even go all the way up and take that 100 per cent,” he said.

Mr Moagi also encouraged Batswana who have some shares in companies that have been issued prospecting licences to desist from selling all their shares, but to remain with a small stake for future income.

“I agreed that people may be financially pressed and may want lump sum money for other needs, but make a sacrifice such that if a mine opens you have a stake in it,” he said.

Mr Moagi also explained that the 24 per cent stake citizen priority requirement in foreign businesses that wanted to set up in the country was to avoid scaring off investors.

“If a citizen gets a stake that gives them veto power, it might delay progress in case that citizen does not have financial or resources required to start operating,” he said.

On other issues, Mr Moagi said contrary to some arguments that non-mining countries like Mauritius had a better GDP per Capita derived from minerals than Botswana despite having less mines, it was not the case as Mauritius was well endowed in tourism, which he said was the chief contributor to its GDP per Capita.

Meanwhile legislators also supported the Deeds Registry Amendment Bill as presented by the Minister of Lands and Water Affairs, Dr Kefentse Mzwinila.

Presenting the Bill, Dr Mzwinila explained that the Deeds Registry Act at present provided for the registration of security interests in both movable and immovable property.

He said therefore that the enactment of the Movable Property Security Interest Act as proposed changed the legal landscape in the security interest in movable property as it shall now be registered under the Collateral Registry office established in terms of the Movable Property Security Interests Act.

He therefore said proposed consequential amendments to the Deeds Registry Act included among others, ensuring that the Deeds Registry office only dealt with immovable property while movable property security interests would be undertaken by the Collateral Registry office.

Dr Mzwinila also indicated that there was a need to increase conveyancing officers at land boards across the country to relief the Deeds Registry office.

“This is more so that most of the workload done by the Deeds Registry office is the responsibility of land boards, so increasing conveyancing officers is a better option than increasing Deeds Registry offices across the country,” he said.

Member of Parliament for Palapye, Mr Onneetse Ramogapi had called for setting up of another Deeds Registry office in Palapye to complement the only two in Gaborone and Francistown. ENDS