WHEN David Magang opened Botswana’s first domestic law firm shortly after independence in 1966, he and his country were starting from scratch. Since then, both he and the former British protectorate, which celebrates its 50th birthday this week, have travelled a huge distance, based largely on Botswana’s vast diamond wealth. With those riches running low, the outlook is less rosy.Trained in London, Magang was one of only two local lawyers — the rest being British or South African — while Botswana, an expanse of arid scrubland the size of France, had just 7km of tarred road and a capital that amounted to little more than a railway station."On the face of it, Botswana was very poor — good for hunting and not much else. It was basically an agrarian, subsistence society," Magang told Reuters. "All we had was a railway, and that was owned by SA and Rhodesia."The 77-year-old is now chairman of a luxury golf and housing estate on the outskirts of Gaborone, while Botswana is the world’s big...
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