The world's biggest                                       DIAMOND producer

EATING DIAMONDS

To mark the 50-year milestone, armies of state workers have festooned street-lights with flags and daubed roadside rocks with sky-blue paint, Botswana's national color.

But the celebrations are also tinged with unease.

The cornerstone of Botswana's success has been one commodity, diamonds, coupled with a rigid adherence to prudent use of their revenues, a rarity on a continent where natural riches are routinely squandered, stolen or the cause of civil war.

Besides roads, they have funded hospitals, schools and a welfare state that provides free healthcare and education to all, generous by African standards.

There is also a US$5,4 billion sovereign wealth fund and US$8 billion in central bank reserves.

But each of Botswana's 2,3 million people knows that, unlike in the movies, the gems do not last forever, and the breakneck growth they have fueled in the past will not be repeated.

Even if output remains constant, with a growing and aging population - life expectancy has risen to 64 despite one of the world's worst HIV/AIDS epidemics - the net effect is a per capita windfall that shrinks a fraction each year.

"In a sense, we are eating diamonds," said economist Keith Jefferis of Gaborone-based consult. "There is no immediate threat to Botswana's current 'business model' but diamond mining is unlikely to provide economic growth in the future."

<Reference>

At 50, Botswana discovers diamonds are not forever (2016, September 27). ZIMBABWE INDEPENDENT. Retrieved from https://www.theindependent.co.zw/2016/09/27/50-botswana-discovers-diamonds-not-forever/