Carnage in diamond cutting industry

Despair: More diamond companies continue to lay off workers
Despair: More diamond companies continue to lay off workers

The massive retrenchments in the domestic diamond cutting and polishing industry continues unabated as companies reel from the effects of high rough prices and lack of liquidity.

According to information reaching BusinessWeek, another local cutting and polishing company, Diacore has retrenched 50 employees taking the total number of affected workers in the industry to around 1,000 in the past year.

At its peak, the industry employed about 3,700 workers. Companies that have recently retrenched include Moti Ganz (100), Leo Schachter (100), Eurostar (100), Shrenuj (90) Safdico (30), Zebra (50), Dalumni, Tiffany’s (50) while Teemane (400) and DMB closed shop. Diacore diamond polishing company, which has been operating in Botswana for seven years, employed about 130 people before trimming down the workforce to 80 employees.

Editor's Comment
The corrupt must be punished

The findings reveal a disturbing pattern of misconduct and lack of transparency that cannot be ignored.The Tribunal, led by Judge President Justice Kabelo Lebotse, has rightly condemned the Ministry for its eyebrow raising conduct in awarding a P1.8 billion water tender to China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (Pty) Ltd and Zhong Gan Engineering & Construction Corporation (Pty) Ltd.The award was made despite alleged clear evidence that...

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