Protestors from Survival International made a stand outside Tiffany & Co stores in London, San Francisco, Madrid, Paris and Berlin. The protesters claim that the international jeweller funds water boreholes for game animals on Bushman land where the people are forbidden access to their own borehole. 

The protestors delivered a letter at the respective syores asking Tiffany to withdraw financial support for the boreholes. Bushman spokesman Jumanda Gakelebone said: “Tiffany is supporting the government but ignoring the Bushmen. It should not be giving money to the government while we don’t have any water. Its money is being used to oppress us. This is our land and we love it.”

In a statement Tiffany & Co said that the company supported Friends of Peace Parks, which is working with the Kalahari Conservation Society with a grant to rehabilitate and provide wildlife drinking points (boreholes) for wildlife in the Central Kalahari and Khutse Game Reserves. The spokesperson said: “This grant is part of the foundation’s larger programme to promote wildlife conservation as a source of sustainable economic development in Botswana.”

They added: “The foundation has supported other nonprofits and projects in Botswana, including, a grant to the African Wildlife Foundation, which is working with local communities to ensure the wildlife and wild lands will endure, and to partner with the University of Pennsylvania in building a facility for HIV/AIDS treatment at the Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone.”