As Gofaone sat behind a polishing wheel for the first time, she wasn’t just bursting with happiness; she felt important. Not everyone in Botswana gets the chance to see a diamond with their own eyes, she thought. She looked at this delicate, expensive thing, almost as old as the Earth itself, and saw a lifeline.
At 25, she felt like she’d made it. Now 37, she is filled with regret.
After more than a decade spent cutting and polishing diamonds, Gofaone, a single mother, has little to show for her time and skills. She has no savings; Gofaone and her 8-year-old son share a rented home with a fellow polisher because neither of the women can afford to live alone. She endures chronic back pain, which she believes was caused by the work, and has been targeted for joining a union.
“[I feel] so sad,” she said. “Looking back, I feel like I’ve wasted my years.”
Gofaone, who asked to be identified only by her middle name out of fear of repercussions, is among thousands of mostly female workers employed in Botswana’s polishing factories. They work for companies known as “sightholders,” trusted partners hand-selected by global giant De Beers. In order to keep receiving rough diamonds from De Beers, the sightholders must adhere to its standards, put in place to ensure human rights and labor regulations are met. De Beers describes these as the strictest the industry has seen.
Yet in interviews with more than two dozen current and former employees across multiple factories, New Lines and The Fuller Project documented numerous violations of these standards.
Workers are often hired on precarious short-term contracts with few rights or benefits, and, like Gofaone, threatened or punished for unionizing. Some women said that the fine dust particles from diamond polishing cause coughing and sickness, while others handle corrosive chemicals with their bare hands. Many described wiping black dust off their faces at the end of shifts and a workplace infested with rats. One reported being repeatedly sexually assaulted, and others said they were sexually harassed.
“They treat us like slaves,” said one woman who worked for Sheetal Cutting Works, a company headquartered in India, until last year. “They don’t care about our lives.”
“We have serious issues in this sector,” said Letang Rakwadi, a labor relations officer at the Botswana Diamond Workers Union (BDWU). “It’s the same thing … every day, every year.”
Nearly all workers interviewed asked to remain anonymous due to security or job concerns.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, shoppers stuck at home splurged on luxury purchases — like diamonds. But since then, demand has fallen, as consumers hit by inflation are spending less. Diamond prices have also dropped, and lab-grown gems are becoming cheaper and more popular.
Fifty-plus years ago, De Beers and the government of Botswana formed a lucrative partnership to run the country’s diamond mines, known as Debswana. Yet today, De Beers is reeling from its worst slump in sales in more than two decades. And as owner Anglo American prepares to sell the “world’s most important” diamond company, its future looks uncertain, leaving sightholders equally worried about theirs.
Although workers in the polishing sector technically earn above the minimum wage, it’s far from what is needed for a decent life, the women said. Botswana might be considered an upper-middle-income country, largely thanks to the diamond trade, but it’s also one of the most unequal.
And while media outlets around the world regularly report on issues in India’s polishing sector, including mistreated workers committing suicide, rights groups say that Botswana receives little scrutiny, leaving violations to fester in a country known for its so-called ethical gems.
“If you ask somebody to tell a positive story about diamonds, the first thing they will always say is Botswana,” said Hans Merket from the International Peace Information Service, a research institute based in Belgium. “It’s still often seen as this ‘good pupil’ in the class, and this has led to very limited attention for its problems with transparency, corruption issues and so on.”
A De Beers Group spokesperson, in emailed comments, said the company takes the allegations relating to sightholder businesses in Botswana “extremely seriously” and is carrying out “active measures” to review them. Independent audits are conducted to ensure compliance with their standards, the spokesperson added.
The government of Botswana did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
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