Senior Zimbabwe government officials, including the police, have been sucked into a diamond smuggling scandal, which is believed to have cost the country about US$30-million in lost revenue in the past eight months.
In April last year, thousands of villagers descended on Marange, a district in the eastern Manicaland province, to pan for diamonds with the permission of the political leadership in the province. Police officers probing the diamond racket told the Mail & Guardian the country had lost millions of dollars because the ”whole mining of the diamonds wasn’t properly controlled, hence everyone joined in, including police officers in the province”.
What is worrying Harare is the US$50-million in annual trade revenue the country stands to lose if the European Union decides to slap a blanket ban on local diamonds.
The EU’s concern follows reports that diamonds were being smuggled into South Africa, bypassing the certification process. The EU also fears that uncertified diamonds from the Democratic Republic of Congo have been mixed into the illegally exported Zimbabwean diamonds. The Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe is the sole body that can certify Zimbabwean diamonds for export.
The prospect of a ban has sent shivers down the spines of central bank officials, as the export of minerals is Zimbabwe’s greatest source of foreign exchange. ”It’s been messy,” says John Robertson, an economic consultant. ”Top officials have been sending wrong information and marketing the diamonds out of the country. They kept all the information under wraps. Now that has been discovered, they are all embarrassed.”
The ban would also mean huge job losses, as three big diamond mines would be closed.
At least three ministers in Manicaland mobilised villagers to pan for diamonds after international prospecting rights to the area expired. The diamonds were subsequently sold on the black market, bypassing the Minerals Marketing Corporation.
At Zanu-PF’s conference in December, Mugabe expressed concern about government officials’ stampede for diamonds in Manicaland. ”The same chaos that characterised land reform,” he said, ”is currently obtaining in [sic] diamonds.”
Mugabe said his government needed to take action because it was ”shameful”, insisting ”everything had to be organised”. But inside sources said he was aware some of his officials had joined the rush for the gems.
Recent events have prompted Parliament to launch an investigation into the looting of diamonds. ”The probe will certainly open a can of worms,” said Innocent Gonese, opposition Movement for Democratic Change legislator for Mutare.
Gonese, who comes from Manicaland, said: ”Senior government officials encouraged villagers to pan for diamonds. It was a free-for-all and it’s difficult to rule out that they [ministers in the province] benefited given the haphazard manner in which the mineral was mined.”
But police spokesperson Oliver Mandipaka said ”everything has now been brought under control”. He could not confirm that senior government officials were being investigated.
This week Joel Kabuza, the chairman of Parliament’s portfolio committee on mines and energy, said senior government officials were involved in ”shady diamonds deals”, adding that his committee would deal with all the offenders. It is not clear when the parliamentary investigation will be completed.
The US-based World Diamond Council last week added its voice to the controversy, probing allegations that diamonds were being smuggled into South Africa and blended with smuggled diamonds from the DRC.
Both the EU probe and the parliamentary investigation are bound to zero in on retired General Solomon Mujuru, husband of Vice-President Joice Mujuru, whose company, River Ranch Mine, is involved in diamond mining in Beitbridge, in southern Zimbabwe.
It is alleged that River Ranch mixed local diamonds with illicit diamonds from the DRC. River Ranch refuted the allegations.