Maipato Kesebang normally grows maize, jugo beans and sweet reed on her 20-hectare plot of land northwest of Gaborone, Botswana’s capital. But last year, worsening drought and heatwaves destroyed much of her harvest.



“The little that grew feebly we just ate. Nothing was left for storage or to sell,” she said.



Usually when her crops fail she turns to collecting wild spinach to sell, to support her two sons. But even that is now disappearing as climate change brings harsher weather and more people turn to harvesting the vegetable to survive, she said.



So last year, for the first time, she signed up to Ipelegeng, a long-standing government safety net program that provides temporary jobs for those struggling to make ends meet.



Now she works one month out of four cutting back overgrown grass and trees, desilting dams and drains, collecting litter or cleaning streets.



She’d prefer to work every month &#8211; but demand is so high for the jobs that there aren’t enough slots, she said.



“We only work for a month, then we go home and wait for three months before we apply again. That’s because there are too many people now needing the relief,” said Kesebang, as she pulled weeds on her parched plot of land.



As harsher droughts and hotter weather linked to climate change ruin crops more frequently in Botswana, the country is facing a new challenge: growing demand for social assistance programs.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">SWELLING RANKS</h4>



About 68,000 people worked for Ipelegeng as of March 2018, according to figures from Statistics Botswana, up from about 64,000 in March 2016. Of those on the rolls, about 47,000 were women, according to the agency.



To accommodate rising demand, Botswana’s government last August increased the number of Ipelegeng slots by 5,000, after declaring 2018-2019 an expected drought year.



That will cost the country an extra $2.7 million &#8211; money that it does not readily have as its national budget does not specifically set money aside for drought relief, said Billyboy Siabatho, deputy director of the rural development council at the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.



“Often, when drought comes, we end up borrowing from funds that would have been set aside for infrastructure development projects,” he said.



Ipelegeng’s main objective is to provide short term employment and relief, while helping carry out development efforts the country sees as important, he said.



“During drought periods, there are fewer farming activities. Therefore most people relocate from farms to villages, looking for alternative sources of income,” Siabatho said.



“Due to limited job opportunities in rural areas, most people rely on Ipelegeng as an alternative source of employment,” he noted.



But as droughts continue to worsen in southern Africa, Siabatho wonders whether the government will be able to keep pace with growing demand.



He also worries whether people will begin to see dependence on safety nets as an easier route than farming, as crop failures worsen.



Botswana’s government, aware of the risks from worsening drought, began in December working on a new drought management strategy that aims to improve planning and budgeting for threats and not focus simply on responding to them, Siabatho said.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">‘BEANS ARE BURNING’</h4>



For Kesebang, such help can’t come soon enough. Her farm, a few kilometers out of the town of Molepolole, sits in Kweneng District, which has the highest poverty levels in the country, of over 50 percent, according to 2018 report by Statistics Botswana.



Most of the 567 pula ($55) she earns each month she works for Ipelegeng goes to keep her youngest son in primary school.



“I buy books and uniform. Often nothing is really left. Life has become difficult,” she said.



The new planting season isn’t looking much more promising either, she said. Most of the maize, beans, sweet reed and watermelon she planted in late December are struggling, she said.



“The beans are already burning. I have no hope of harvesting maize. Maybe the watermelons will survive,” she said, hopefully.



She’s already given up plowing three-quarters of her farm, to avoid greater losses, she said, though she has allowed a friend to try her luck farming a four-hectare section.



For now, Kesebeng heads to town each day to join hundreds of other temporary workers trimming tree branches that obstruct traffic.



Harsher weather isn’t hitting only the poorest farmers, either. Oduetse Koboto, who heads the environment and climate change unit at the United Nations Development Programme, said he saw little harvest from his own farm last year, in part because of floods.



“I planted tomatoes on 1.5 hectares. I expected to make 200,000 pula ($19,000). I lost. I had also planted a hectare of green peppers, expecting 600,000 pula ($58,000) from it. I lost all that too,” he said.



His 600 mango trees produced not a single useable fruit, he added, and “this is regardless of the fact that I use drip irrigation, solar pumping, and spent on farm maintenance all year round”.



“Imagine what the poor in villages must be going through,” he said.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">RISING COSTS</h4>



Botswana for over a decade has invested in helping farmers boost grain production and improve food security, including through measures such as better access to credit, technology, seeds and water.



But with droughts worsening, improving harvests remains a challenge &#8211; and the country continues to import over 80 percent of its food from South Africa.



“Low production in the agricultural sector due to drought has led to high import bills in cereals, dairy, poultry products and feeds, to name but a few,” Siabatho said.



Costs for programs like Ipelegeng also are rising, he said, noting that the program now costs over $28 million a year to run.



For Kesebang, stress levels are also rising. After watching her new crops wilt, she was nearly hospitalized as a result of anxiety and high blood pressure, she said, and had to remain in Molepolole for two weeks.



Recent rains have now given her a bit more optimism.



“A week into February it rained at least twice. The few plants that survived are recovering. I have hope,” she said. -Reuters



&#8211;Sharon Tshipa

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Famed Cullinan Mine Banks On Big Diamonds To Drive Down Debt

In 1966, if you drove through Gaborone and blinked you would have missed it. It was little more than a barren railway stop, in the middle of nowhere, on the way from Cape Town to Cairo. Those living here would have said there was nothing more to it than termite mounds and elephants.
At the time, this land-locked country was considered to be the poorest in Africa, with a per capita of $70. It had nine secondary schools, 50 university graduates, a railway line built by Cecil John Rhodes, and five kilometers of tarred road that stretched between Lobatse Station and the High Court.
From this backwater beginning Botswana has emerged as one of the fastest growing economies in the world and moved into the ranks of upper-middle income countries. Real GDP shows an average growth of 5% per annum over the past decade, at a time when the most advanced economies have been falling apart. In 2015, GDP stood at $14.39 billion. This remarkable growth, according to the World Bank, is because of diamonds hidden deep in Orapa, 521 kilometers north of Gaborone. The discovery was made in 1967, months after Botswana’s independence was declared on September 30, 1966, and the proceeds went to the state rather than colonial coffers.
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But, if you look closely at the white walls and fresh cement of Gaborone, cracks appear. In the week FORBES AFRICA arrived in Gaborone, unemployed youth clashed with police outside Parliament; four of them spent the night in jail.
It is called #UnemploymentMovement and uses social media to fuel support, much like South Africa’s #FeesMustFall student protests a year ago. It comes at a time when citizens question the government’s P100 million ($9.76 million) budget for its golden jubilee.
It is a big problem. One third of Botswana’s two million people are youth. The World Bank says poverty in Botswana is 17.8%, among youth aged between 15 and 24 its 34.10%. This is despite government spending 9% of its $14.39 billion GDP on free education.
One of those that spent the night in jail is Jones Banda, a committee leader behind #UnemploymentMovement. Speaking to FORBES AFRICA while on a march on August 13, he says the movement started with just one student, Tlamelo Tsurupe, standing outside Parliament with a poster. Within a week dozens more, including Banda, joined him.
“The youth of Botswana have realized our government can no longer place jobs for the youth&#8230; Most of our emphasis now is on the graduates. Why? Because it is [graduates] that are very frustrated. They have been educated by the government to take control of the economy and now the government is not absorbing them. Mind you, the students have loans to pay,” says Banda.
At the time of going to print, the BDP had not released an official statement concerning police assault at the protest on August 8. A permit was granted for the march held on August 13.
Banda believes unemployed youth make up more than 17.8%. This is because unemployed graduates have to register with the government, meaning that thousands of other students who are not graduates are not considered.
Banda’s stint behind bars hardened his resolve.
“Being in jail is almost as if I was home, not that I have ever been in jail. But for the movement it was a good thing. We felt the brunt of system and so we know now who is on our side. It was what we expected,” says Banda.
While students called for better employment, there are others who have managed to eke out a living.
A 32-year-old electrical engineering graduate, Kagiso Monkgatusi, makes his living from flying a P45,000 ($4,400) drone, one of the few owned and licensed in the country.
Monkgatusi, a photographer by trade, got the idea for his business after seeing footage on the internet. It led to him starting his small business, Africa Killer Bee Media, named because of the sound the drone makes in flight. The drone was given to him as a grant by the government-run Local Enterprise Authority. Monkgatusi’s success is an indication of Botswana’s potential.
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In Gaborone, there are small signs of burgeoning wealth; tarred roads glisten, as bright as the country’s diamonds, next to dusty sidewalks; malls, polished and pristine, are packed to the rafters with food, shoes and cell phone stores. The city center is a hive of activity as scaffolding rises on the skyline.
Botswana’s success is largely due to a stable government with strong fiscal management, reports the World Bank. President Ian Khama, whose photo hangs on the wall of every store you visit, has held office since 2008. He is the head of the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) that has been in power since the first elections in 1965. Every president has been democratically elected and all stood down after their two-term limit.
At the very least, Botswana is trying hard to improve investment and growth in their small economy.
For the hungry investor, Special Economic Zones (SEZ) have been built in Lobatse, Gaborone, Palapye, Selibe Phikwe, Tuli Block, Francistown and Pandamatenga.
“In April, P1.6 billion, of P3.5 billion over three years, in tenders have been awarded and the focus is mainly on the construction of roads, health and education facilities. Other sectors that have been allocated package proceeds are manufacturing, tourism and agriculture,” says Moatlhodi Sebabole, Research Manager at First National Bank Botswana.
Sebabole says Botswana also has a five-year national development plan (NDP) which will focus on coal mining, base metals and diamonds. However, according to Sebabole, investors need to keep a careful eye on low agriculture and food security, stability of water and electricity, and low investment growth.
“The production side of the economy still remains under turbulence with the closure of some abattoirs as well as base metal mines like African Copper,” says Sebabole.
Regardless, Sebabole believes Botswana’s outlook over the next 10 years is promising. Focus will remain on infrastructure projects in water, rail and electricity, which will need financing of P100 billion (around $10 billion) by 2019.
Botswana is a far cry from the country that started with $70 per person a year and five kilometers of tarred road. Fifty years on, it faces new challenges that show how far the country has come – some might even go as far as calling it first world problems, including an educated and militant youth.

Young,  Jobless And ANGRY

Director Olivier Dahan’s 2014 film Grace of Monaco, put the late Princess Grace of Monaco – and her jewelry – firmly in the spotlight. The film sparked controversy over its depiction of the late princess but the role played by her Cartier jewels received rave reviews.
One of the most stylish women of her era, actress Grace Kelly was regarded American royalty, and even more so when she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco.
Such flawless beauty was created for magnificent jewelry and what better house to grace her than the jeweler of kings and the king of jewelers, Cartier?
&nbsp;
<div id="attachment_29930" style="width: 242px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-29930" class="size-medium wp-image-29930" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/©-Time-Magazine--Getty.jpg" alt="" width="232" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/©-Time-Magazine--Getty.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/©-Time-Magazine--Getty-300x388.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/©-Time-Magazine--Getty-600x776.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/©-Time-Magazine--Getty-232x300.jpg 232w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 232px) 100vw, 232px" />Princess Grace of Monaco wearing hair in elaborate bun &amp; adorned w. stunning diamond necklace, at party.</div>
Princess Grace had a loyal relationship with Cartier both in Paris and in Monaco and throughout her life received a string of elegant pieces specially commissioned for her, including a diamond and ruby tiara, a necklace made up of three strands of diamonds and many beloved brooches and bracelets.
With the consent of the Sovereign House of Monaco, the ateliers of the Maison opened their archives and worked tirelessly to reproduce five faithful reproductions of the vintage Cartier collection of Monaco, including the 10.47-carat emerald-cut diamond engagement ring which Princess Grace was given by Prince Rainier in 1956, eight months after they met.
A key scene in the film shows Grace – played by Nicole Kidman – dazzling in her signature Cartier pieces as she announces to the world’s press, against the backdrop of the legendary Cartier boutique at 13 Rue de la Paix in Paris, that she is giving up movies and acting and dedicating herself to being a royal wife and mother.
Most movie-goers will enjoy seeing the reproduction pieces in the movie but enthusiasts could view the real deal at the Cartier: Style and History exhibition at the opulent Grand Palais in Paris.
Among many other beautiful and famous objects, including Wallis Simpson’s jewelry, was a prestigious ensemble of around 20 pieces, some official and others more personal, from the Prince of Monaco’s collection.
While other famous diamond-studded Cartier tiaras sparkled and spun on the revolving carousel which greeted visitors at the entrance to the exhibition, a pearl and diamond tiara featuring hanging pear-shaped pearls set in platinum and white gold, which was given to Princess Charlotte of Monaco as a wedding present, was given pride of place in the Monaco exhibition area.
Grace’s various tiaras have previously been showcased on exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and at Sotheby&#8217;s in New York and her dresses went on a Grace Kelly: Style Icon tour in Australia with the Victoria &amp; Albert Collection.
Her daughters, Princesses Caroline and Stephanie, have often borrowed both their mother&#8217;s and grandmother’s tiaras, with Caroline, in particular, often wearing them to state occasions. Her mother’s famous diamond and ruby tiara separates into three brooches and a necklace which makes them versatile.
The Grand Palais exhibition also showed a cover of French magazine, Paris Match, from 1959 of Princess Grace in her official state costume, including the diamond and ruby tiara, the three-tiered diamond necklace and a diamond and ruby bracelet.
Cartier was famous for their animal depictions and created a signature brooch for Princess Grace, a diamond brooch in the shape of a poodle, as she always loved the dogs and was frequently photographed carrying one.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-29929 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/34662-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/34662-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/34662-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/34662-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/34662.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Another favorite was her hen brooch in repoussé gold, platinum and diamonds with a cabochon emerald for the eye, which Cartier created for her in 1957.
In addition to the famous pieces featured at the exhibition in Paris, Cartier also played a role in the Grace of Monaco movie. In addition to their historical reproductions, Cartier loaned the production team a number of high jewelry pieces. These included a gorgeous emerald necklace worn by Spanish actress Paz Vega, who plays Maria Callas in the film, as well as Cartier watches and accessories which are worn by the male leads, Tim Roth as Prince Rainier III and Robert Lindsay in the role of Aristotle Onassis.
Both the movie and the exhibition placed Cartier in the spotlight and the Oscar could go to the legendary atelier for best jewelry, or at least best reproduction of a vintage piece.

© Gerard UferasCartier 19_02_14

Gold And  Diamonds On The Silver Screen

For 127 years, the Rand Club, in the heart of downtown Johannesburg, has been home to the rich, ambitious and gentlemanly. It was born in 1886 when Cecil John Rhodes, the colonialist extraordinaire, walked from the mine diggings, marked a small dusty spot and said ‘This corner will do for the club’.
In those days, £10 bought you membership and in flocked the Randlords, the millionaires who mined Johannesburg’s gold and turned it from bush to the biggest city in Africa. On raucous nights, behind its oak doors, Rhodes would walk in and roll handfuls of rough diamonds like dice on the green baize of the billiard table to show everyone the fruit of his mines.
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There could be few clubs who can claim to have accomodated Rudyard Kipling and Winston Churchill, when he was a young journalist.
Conspirators met in the Rand Club to hatch the Jameson Raid in 1895. They plotted for a bunch of armed horsemen, lead by Leander Starr Jameson from Pitsani, in Botswana, to stage a coup against Paul Kruger, President of the Transvaal Republic, who controlled the gold mines. The Afrikaaner rulers raised taxes and controlled the treasury but refused foreigners, who worked the mines, the vote. Jameson hoped to ride in and foment an uprising in Johannesburg among disgruntled mine workers but only got as far as Krugersdorp where marksmen captured them.
These days, the membership is $1,200 a year. But down the years fewer have taken it. With an aging membership, the welcome is getting warmer. The club is changing to attract a new generation to liven it up.
“In 125 years, much has changed in the business center. Most of our core members have moved out of the city center of Johannesburg going to Sandton or closer to their mining operations. As a result, there are not enough people using the club anymore. In 10 years, the club has not made an operating profit. We want people to use the club, especially with the inner city revival, but we haven’t had the outsource capacity to do that,” says David Williams, Rand Club deputy chairman.
Williams announced in August that it would sell the catering business for $0.01. A new private banqueting company will operate from within the club. It will try to rejuvenate a tired marketing strategy for a building, as much a museum as a club, with Africa’s longest bar.
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Every second Thursday evening, you’ll find David Lobban taking new members around the club to learn its history. But, unlike a lot of museums, the building has changed little since 1904. Not even a fire in 2005 changed it, says Lobban.
“I remember that day so well. As the building was burning, we had two of our oldest members at the bar. I remember them saying ‘we’re going down with the ship’, they refused to leave ‘their spots’ at the bar. In the end we convinced them to finish their drinks on the balcony, whilst the smoke was coming out the windows,” he says.
It was a sign of meaner times when the club was forced to increase its security after a $205,000 book was stolen from its library.
Lobban has worked for the club for 15 years, after he left his old job as a bodyguard for the most famous Rand Club member, Nelson Mandela.
“He was one of the hardest people to look after. I used to hate it. The man had no sense of security. Often he would stop in the middle of a street to get out and talk to people,” says Lobban.
A painting, donated by the great man, hangs above the stairwell, to commemorate his membership.
As the club struggles to survive, surely Rhodes would approve of the one last roll of the diamonds.

Tag: Diamonds

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Famed Cullinan Mine Banks On Big Diamonds To Drive Down Debt

Young, Jobless And ANGRY

Gold And Diamonds On The Silver Screen

The Last Roll Of The Diamonds