A London-registered mining company is demanding the eviction of Zimbabwean state companies and their South African partners working the controversial Chiadzwa diamond field in the east of the country, lawyers confirmed on Monday.
Lawyer Jonathan Samkange said he had lodged an urgent eviction application on behalf of African Consolidated Resources (ACR), whose claim was grabbed by President Robert Mugabe’s government in 2006 but which won a Zimbabwe High Court ruling in late September declaring it to be the lawful owner of the Chiadzwa claim.
ACR officials say that the two companies occupying the site, police and state mining authorities have ignored the September ruling.
The Chiadzwa field earned notoriety last year when human rights agencies reported that 200 people had been murdered and thousands tortured and assaulted when police and the army launched a crackdown to drive off about 20 000 illegal diggers and panners at the site.
Industry experts fear that revenue from the lucrative diamond field are being channeled to cronies of Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party, instead of to the country’s cash-strapped unity government.
Minister of mines Obert Mpofu gave mining rights to South African companies New Reclamation and Core Mining around the same time as the September court order.
The companies have formed joint ventures with the state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation.
”It is evident that the diamond mining [by the two companies] on the ACR claims is unlawful and has been unlawful from the very beginning,” said ACR chief executive Andrew Cranswick, who added that only his company was entitled to exploit the claims.
ACR could suffer ”irreparable harm” if the case was not dealt with urgently, as the alluvial diamond field had a limited lifespan.
No date for the hearing of ACR’s eviction application has been set. — Sapa-dpa