Govt takes over Mujuru mine
By Tatenda Dewa | Harare Bureau |
Mining minister, Walter Chidhakwa, last week indicated that government would take over a diamond mining company in which the Mujuru family has a 20 percent stake.
Speaking at a mining conference, Chidhakwa said government was repossessing River Ranch Limited.
Khupukile Resources that is owned by the Mujuru family has the 20 percent stake in River Ranch, with the rest belonging to Limpopo Mining Resources.
The late general Solomon Mujuru who died in a mysterious fire in August 2011 owned Khupukile Resources.
His wife, Joice, who was removed as President Robert Mugabe’s deputy in December 2014 and subsequently expelled from the ruling Zanu PF in early 2015 over allegations of plotting to topple her boss, now leads an opposition party, Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF).
Senior government officials recently insisted that Mujuru had been externalising diamonds and vowed she would be arrested.
“In the case of River Ranch, (the) government has taken a position that diamond mining is a preserve of the government,” said Chidhakwa at the conference.
Government in late 2015 stopped the eight companies that were mining diamonds in Marange and has since formed the Zimbabwe Consolidated Mining Company (ZMDC) to take over gem extraction.
Official diamond mining in Marange started in 2009 but, by 2015, gems worth some $13 billion had leaked without trace, forcing government to stop the miners.
A leading firm that remains unnamed has already been hired to carry out an audit of the eight diamond companies, according to the auditor general, Mildred Chiri. Nehanda Radio
