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Botswana’s diamond dream meets a reckoning over those who polish it
NCHIDZI MASENDU（https://weekendpost.co.bw/author/nchidzi-masendu/） 7 hours ago 2238 16 min
Allegations of exploitation inside the country’s cutting and polishing factories test the credibility of its ethical-diamond brand – at the worst possible moment for the trade.
A contradiction at the heart of the success story
For nearly six decades, the diamond has been Botswana’s origin story – the glittering engine that built its roads, funded its schools and underwrote the salaries of a state widely admired for turning mineral wealth into stability. Now that story is colliding with an uncomfortable question: at what cost to the workers who give those stones their shine?
Botswana’s cutting and polishing industry is confronting renewed scrutiny over allegations of exploitative conditions inside its factories; claims that strike directly at the credibility of the country’s carefully cultivated reputation as a producer of ethical diamonds. The Botswana Diamond Workers Union (BDWU) contends that some firms subject their employees, particularly Indian migrant workers, to meagre wages, precarious contracts, punishing hours and intimidation tied to union organising.
The accusations land at an especially fragile moment. The global diamond trade is grappling with soft demand, sliding prices and relentless competition from laboratory-grown stones. For a nation whose fortunes remain bound to the gem, a reputational crisis is a luxury it can scarcely afford.
Diamonds have long anchored Botswana’s development, bankrolling infrastructure, public services and government spending while earning the country an international name for political steadiness and prudent stewardship of its resources. The industry is routinely held up as proof that natural wealth need not be a curse.
Yet the allegations emerging from the domestic cutting and polishing sector expose a jarring contradiction – a gap between the triumphant national narrative and the lived experience of some of the very people adding value to Botswana’s most important export.
The strategy behind that sector was ambitious and sound in principle. By moving beyond the export of rough stones toward local cutting and polishing, Botswana sought to generate jobs, transfer technical skill and keep more value at home rather than shipping it abroad in unprocessed form. But the economics have proven stubborn. Operating costs in Botswana run far higher than at long-established cutting hubs such as Surat, India.
Historical industry estimates have pegged cutting and polishing costs at roughly US60 to US65 per carat in Botswana, against US12 to US25 in India. Those figures may not capture every operation’s current reality, but the chasm illustrates the competitive vise local manufacturers find themselves in – saddled with steep expenses while chasing increasingly price-sensitive buyers. The danger, critics warn, is that the scramble to stay competitive tempts some firms to trim labour costs at the expense of their workers’ wages, security and safety.
The allegations
The BDWU alleges that certain cutting and polishing firms have exploited workers’ vulnerability through low pay, disputed or unpaid overtime, short-term contracts and hostility toward union activity. IndustriALL Global Union, with which the BDWU is affiliated, has echoed those concerns, reporting allegations of dismissals, victimisation and breaches of labour protections across parts of the industry. Some workers, the complaints hold, have been sacked over minor or untested accusations; others describe restrictive practices on the factory floor.
These claims demand careful investigation and should not be read as proven verdicts against every company in the country. But their gravity calls for a reckoning from labour authorities, employers and the diamond industry at large. Where fear of losing a job, an income – or the right to remain in the country – silences complaints, ordinary workplace grievances can calcify into systemic abuses.
Indian migrant workers sit at the sensitive centre of this debate. Their expertise, honed over generations in the international cutting trade, has been instrumental in building Botswana’s manufacturing capacity. Yet their position is also uniquely precarious. When a worker’s employment, permit and practical livelihood are all tethered to a single employer, challenging that employer becomes perilous. A person who fears dismissal or trouble renewing immigration papers may think twice before contesting unpaid wages, unsafe conditions or unfair treatment – an imbalance of power that voluntary corporate promises alone cannot correct.
The concerns are not confined to migrants. Earlier investigations and labour-rights reports have flagged occupational hazards across Botswana’s polishing sector: exposure to fine diamond dust, the handling of chemicals, low pay and sexual harassment. Reporting by The Fuller Project has documented women describing health problems linked to workplace exposure, inadequate protective measures and harassment.