Zimbabwe diamond money leaking away

OUTSIDE LOOKING IN: A letter from the diaspora

By Pauline Henson

In all the hoo-ha about the election date, diamonds may have lost some of their news value but they are still there and still causing quite a lot of bother. Finance Minister Tendayi Biti says the country has no money to fund elections and an appeal is put out to the international community.

Ironically enough, the province where the precious stones are located has this week declared a state of acute hunger. What Manicaland needs, they say, is a series of irrigation schemes. Such schemes benefit the whole community with people able to grow their own vegetables to feed their families and sell the surplus to bring in some cash.

Obviously the wealth generated by the diamonds would immediately solve Manicaland’s problem but – and it seems to be an insoluble ‘but’ – the diamond money is leaking away. Government says it will close these revenue ‘leaks’ but exactly how they will do that is not clear.

On Thursday it was reported that the taxes paid by the mining companies have simply disappeared; they claim they have paid a certain figure to the treasury but the treasury says it has received a significantly lower amount! Whatever the truth of the matter, the fact remains that there are several major projects in the country that need massive capital investment.

The capital city of Harare, for example, is fast running out of drinking water and that problem will only be solved by investment in a whole new sewerage and water treatment plant. China, that ever-generous donor, has apparently given –or loaned? – Harare City Council $14.4 million to rehabilitate its water treatment but water shortage is not limited to the capital city, Gweru is facing a similar dilemma.

None of these very pressing problems at home seem to bother Robert Mugabe. Off he went to the SADC Summit on Zimbabwe with one of the biggest delegations, some 67 people we are told. True, the Summit was on African soil, in Maputo, but 67 airfares, hotel bills, daily allowances, bar bills and etceteras must have used a very substantial sum.

Perhaps it’s an over-vivid imagination but with all these VIPs travelling all over the place, one can’t help thinking that it must be very easy to conceal a few shining stones tucked away in one’s suit pocket in order to transact shady but lucrative deals in foreign countries. That might explain where some of the missing diamond wealth is going?

Zim police seem more interested in banning opposition political rallies and PTUZ marches than arresting crooked diamond dealers. This week the police detained a man because he was driving a car with a Voter Awareness poster on display! It will be interesting to see how the ZRP behave now that there is a 10 man AU delegation in the country to assess Zimbabwe’s voter readiness.

If these are indeed the forerunners of the electoral observers, it’s hard to see how such a small number could possibly cover the whole country. The repeated calls by the US for credible elections would suggest that they are none too hopeful of a smooth outcome but President Obama probably has the more pressing problem of Syria uppermost in his mind.

Zimbabwe too might be facing an aggressor with a resurgent Renamo vowing to overthrow the Frelimo government in Mozambique. Military confrontations on the eastern border may well spill over into Manicaland where the diamonds are but there is an alternative to diamonds.

It’s called ‘cattle banking’ might bring hope for Africa’s rural poor, that’s a much more realistic option for ordinary folk. They don’t have to sell their animals, the cattle are held by the bank as collateral against loans. Diamonds are for the already rich but cattle are the true measure of rural people’s wealth

Yours in the (continuing) struggle, Pauline Henson.