Botswana: Presidential Intervention Helped Prevent Strike

A last minute intervention by Festus Mogae, the Botswana President, has averted a strike by the country's diamond mineworkers. On Friday last week, 6,000 mineworkers threatened to down tools after union leadership and management of Botswana's two biggest diamond mines failed to reach an agreement on a pay increase. If the action had gone ahead, it was projected that it would cost the country about R40 million a day.