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/ 11 September 2004
Wage negotiations between workers at Botswana’s four diamond mines and mining company Debswana deadlocked on Friday evening after 12 hours of discussion. ”It looks as if we talk again on Monday,” said Donald Lobotse, the secretary-general of the Botswana Mining Workers Union.
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/ 8 September 2004
Botswana’s diamond mining company and union leaders have failed to make any progress in wage talks as employers refuse to reinstate workers sacked during an illegal strike, officials said Wednesday. Debswana, a joint venture between the Botswana government and South Africa’s De Beers group, and the 6 000-strong Botswana Mining Workers Union were locked in talks the whole of Tuesday and decided to take a break until Friday.
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/ 6 September 2004
Botswana’s diamond miners, on strike since August 23, returned to work on Sunday although wage talks have not been finalised and will continue. The strikers reported for work on the advice of an international union movement based in Brussels. This move will not stop trials for contempt of court and on the legality of the strike.
An illegal strike in the world’s largest diamond producer, Botswana, entered a second week on Monday with the union saying that miners who have opted to stay on the job are overworked, resulting in two deaths. Thousands of workers in four mines run by Debswana went on strike a week ago.
An end to the illegal strikes at three of Botswana’s diamond mines was expected on Thursday, mining company Debswana said on Wednesday, but informal talks with the Botswana Mining Workers Union then snagged on the issue of the reinstatement of strikers who had been fired.
Botswana’s Debswana Diamond Mining Company and the Botswana Mining Workers’ Union are talking informally on a resolution to the three-day-old illegal strike at three mines. The strike could end before a contempt-of-court hearing against strikers and all union officials resumes on Thursday.
Leaders of a Botswana Bushmen organisation left for the United States on Wednesday to obtain support for their fight against their government’s efforts to relocate them. The Botswana government is trying to persuade the Bushmen to opt for relocation to settlements outside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.
Union leaders representing striking miners at three of Botswana’s diamond mines will face charges of contempt of court on Tuesday afternoon. ”Branch leaders were served with notices during the night at their homes in Jwaneng, Orapa and Letlhakane,” said Botswana Mining Workers’ Union general secretary Donald Lobotse.
About 6 000 workers at Botswana’s four diamond mines went on strike on Monday, defying a court order banning the work stoppage in the Southern African country, the world’s leading producer of uncut diamonds. The diamond industry is by far Botswana’s leading foreign-currency earner, providing 75% of its earnings.
Botswana has defended its practice of flogging people who cross its borders illegally, rejecting criticism by neighbouring Zimbabwe that the punishment is primitive. ”We do not discriminate and we are not going to give Zimbabweans any preferential treatment,” said Botswana’s assistant minister for presidential affairs.
Botswana on Thursday announced the extraction of coal-bed methane that will deliver gas within six months from a pilot plant. Botswana could become the regional supplier of energy. All its neighbours are net importers of energy. The project will also attract investment to Botswana and fuel local growth.
Debswana will continue operations at Jwaneng diamond mine — the world’s richest — although it had not concluded negotiations with the Botswana government on the renewal of its mining licence. ”We have extended the current licence to the end of the year,” permanent secretary in the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Affairs, Akolang Tombale, said on Monday.
Botswana President Festus Mogae on Friday joined last-minute negotiations to head off a strike by approximately 5 000 miners at the country’s four diamond mines, which would severely impact on the nation’s income and the world diamond market, already facing a shortage of rough diamond stock.
The sale on Tuesday by the Botswana government of its holding, through its diamond mining arm Debswana, of 90-million pounds sterling in Anglo American, is seen as a move to halt a two year slide into deficit budgeting. The government, a 50% partner with De Beers in Debswana, will net 45-million pounds sterling — around 670-million pula.
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/ 17 February 2004
Agriculture ministers of eight of the 14 member nations of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have called on their governments to increase allocations to agriculture. The eight want the allocations upped to at least 10% of national Budgets.
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/ 9 December 2003
The execution of convicted murderer Mariette Bosch, a South African citizen, in Botswana in March 2001 did not contravene the policies of the African Commission on Human Rights, the office of the president of Botswana said on Monday.
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/ 4 December 2003
The Botswana government has defended its decision to axe the phone-in section of the popular radio show Masa-a-sele (Morning Has Broken), amid concerns it was taken off the air because it allowed callers to voice criticism of the authorities.
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/ 3 December 2003
Botswana’s police chief has broken ranks with the government by blaming hordes of illegal border-crossers from Zimbabwe for a sharp increase in crime. The country is currently experiencing a huge influx of illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe as a result of a political and economical meltdown in the neighbouring country.
The Southern African Development Community has been urged to take action on threats to press freedom in the region, particularly in Zimbabwe. A Media Institute of Southern Africa delegation has raised concerns that the mandatory licensing of journalists could be open to abuse by governments.
Bank of Botswana governor Linah Mohohlo has been voted central bank governor of the year for sub-Saharan Africa, an international financial magazine, Euromoney, has announced. Mohohlo received the award after a poll by investors, bankers and representatives of financial and capital markets.
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/ 25 September 2003
Microsoft tycoon and philanthropist Bill Gates pledged a long-term fight against the Aids crisis in Botswana on Wednesday on the final leg of the world’s wealthiest man tour through southern Africa.
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/ 24 September 2003
Polio is speading across West Africa from Nigeria, the United Nations World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned. A WHO officer said new cases of the virus imported from Nigeria had been identified in Ghana and Niger, adding that the situation was made worse by another outbreak of a new virus in Togo.
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/ 9 September 2003
The Aids pandemic in Africa could provoke civil wars and wars between states, a Botswanan army general has warned at Africa’s first military conference on the pandemic.
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/ 6 September 2003
Relations between Botswana and Zimbabwe are deteriorating as Botswana builds an electric fence along the border and accuses illegal Zimbabwean immigrants of robbing houses and harassing children.
Botswana denied on Monday it was involved in plans to topple the government of Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe. Reports of such a plan have proliferated since the visit to Botswana in July of US president George Bush.
A civil society meeting on Zimbabwe in Gaborone on Thursday condemned human rights violations in Zimbabwe and called for intervention there by other African governments and institutions.
The Aids pandemic in Africa is being worsened by the flight of many health professionals to other continents, Botswanan Local Government Minister Gladys Kokorwe warned on Monday at the opening of a five-day conference on the disease.
Physicians, scientists and laboratory workers from 18 African countries will hold talks with their US counterparts in Gaborone from Sunday to strengthen laboratory technique and practice in the fight against HIV/Aids.
A South African criminal mastermind has been executed for murder in Botswana, sparking fresh controversy over the death penalty in the southern African country, Botswanan media reported on Tuesday.
ith the economic crisis in neighboring Zimbabwe deepening, Botswana announced Wednesday it had deported 26 717 Zimbabweans who were illegally living in the country last year.
The bilateral talks held in Gaborone on Thursday between the visiting United States President George Bush and Botswana President Festus Mogae would not change the country’s policy towards Zimbabwe, Botswana’s Foreign Minister Mompati Merafhe said.
Visiting a country with the world’s highest Aids infection rate, US President George Bush said on Thursday that the disease is ”the deadliest enemy Africa has ever faced” and promised that the United States will help meet the challenge.