A good week for Botswana’s president

A good week for Mokgweetsi Masisi

It’s one thing to mine diamonds, another to negotiate the sale of the stones. Over the 56 years since the discovery of the Orapa kimberlite field in 1967, a year after independence, the Botswana government has learnt to be as hard as the gems themselves when dealing with De Beers. The corporation, which controls worldwide sales, was taken down to the wire at the weekend by President Mokgweetsi Masisi and his government colleagues in clinching an agreement that was favourable to the country. The nation is one of the richest in Africa thanks to those diamonds.

A bad week for Ntombizodwa Mthombeni

It’s unclear how good Ntombizodwa Mthombeni considered her chances to be at the polls in last week’s municipal by-election in Middelburg, Mpumalanga. Perhaps the EFF candidate was so confident that she didn’t even bother to vote. That is one way to explain why she received no votes. Nil. Zip. Zero. In a ward alongside the local country club, which might further explain voting patterns there, Elsie Vermooten of the DA cleaned up with 905 votes, 96.58% of those cast in a poll with 27.46% turnout. The Middelburg & Hendrina Residents Front got 23 votes and the ANC nine. Mthombeni might have felt she was not quite alone.