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Soldiers and police officers guarding the Chiadzwa diamond and gold fields are now a threat in the area amid revelations they are facilitating massive looting and smuggling of the precious stones by artisanal miners who operate their illegal syndicates.
MUTARE – Highly placed sources within the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Mining Company (ZCDC) and Ministry of Mines last week spoke of how 12 diamond mining companies are clandestinely extracting diamonds worth billions of dollars in Chiadzwa.
By Julias Muguwe
The city of Mutare was then a hive of activity. Everyone wanted a piece of the cake. Arabs, Lebanese, South Africans started flocking into Harare for their loot.
Diamonds were being smuggled willy-nilly. ZRP became mining engineers, the army became mine shift bosses, politicians grew bellies, mansions sprouted in Harare. The poor souls from Chiadzwa, all they could do is engage in running battles with the favoured armed ones.
As looting of diamonds continues through well organised syndicates including employees of Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Companies (ZCDC) at the porous Chiadzwa diamond fields, a security guard at the company is in remand prison facing theft charges for stealing five pieces of the precious stone.
Anjin is set to resume mining in Chiadzwa in May this year, while Russia’s Alsora will complete setting up its office by the end of next month, raising expectations Government will achieve its targeted haul of US$400 million in revenues from diamond mining.
Chinese firm Anjin Investments (Private) Limited (Anjin) has lost a Constitutional Court application in which it sought the nullification of a 2016 government directive expelling it from the diamond-rich Chiadzwa fields.
Despite the general consensus that the country did not benefit from the previous mining regime that existed in the Chiadzwa diamond fields before the formation of the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC), events on the ground suggest that it may not be long before we revert to the old order, which prejudiced the fiscus of billions of dollars in lost revenue.
Zimbabwe Republic Police Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga last week said he was not aware that the force had a mining concession at Chiadzwa diamond fields in Marange.
Home Affairs minister Obert Mpofu has said the new dispensation has zero tolerance for corruption, amid calls for him to quit over an allegation that he demanded a bribe of $10 million for a licence to mine in the verdant Chiadzwa diamond fields.
Mbada Diamonds (Private) Limited, the former largest diamond miner in the Chiadzwa diamond fields, has had its property and assets attached pending auction on Friday over debt.