Govt cracks whip on diamond miners

GOVERNMENT has embarked on an audit of the diamond mining sector to plug loopholes that had seen only a few people benefiting at the expense of the majority.
The country’s diamond sector has been plagued by secrecy over the years amid claims of looting of proceeds with little, if anything, going to Treasury.
But as capital inflows to the fiscus continue to dwindle, government is now frantically looking at ways to raise revenue from the diamonds.
It had previously dismissed claims of looting in the diamond sector and failed to address poor remittances from the sale of the gems.But after securing the sole mandate to govern at the polls last year, the ZANU-PF administration changed course. The party is now cracking the whip on diamond miners.
Last week, Mines and Mining Development Minister Walter Chidhakwa told senators that government would “act” on the results of the audit starting with Marange Resources which is wholly-owned by the State.
“They forget that these are government companies which must serve the people of Zimbabwe. We have started investigating; we are working on Marange now. By the end of the month we will have the results of Marange and we will tell this Senate the results. We will also act,” said Chidhakwa.
Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa also told lawmakers last week that government was working to achieve transparency from the time the alluvial is collected from the ground until the time it is in the vault.

All those who are sitting on assets on promises that they will deliver have been put on notice or else government will repossess the claims.
In fact, government has already started negotiating direct sales of its diamonds and would soon commence trade on the Shanghai Diamond Exchange and the Dubai Diamond Exchange.

“I am trying to demystify and I am sure honourable members will agree. Since we came, we are trying to demystify diamonds. We would want all the information to be on the table so that we can speak on this subject more intelligently,” said Chinamasa.
“We have also said, there are too many players, so we would want to consolidate them into one player. That will take time but we are moving in that general direction.”
In his budget statement last month, Chinamasa revealed that he had received nothing from diamond revenues.

Earlier, at ZANU-PF’s conference in Chinhoyi, President Robert Mugabe blasted the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation, which is in partnership with most mining companies operating at Chiadzwa, for incompetence.

Government’s push to get its fair share from Chiadzwa comes after years of ignoring outcries highlighting lack of transparency in the manner in which investors were chosen to partner the government in the mining of diamonds at the fields in Manicaland. — Staff Reporter
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