Opinion: The mess at Marange

The joy streaming from the streets of Harare last month was contagious. After 37 years of Robert Mugabe’s rule, the people declared victory and sang with a collective hope that their years of suffering were finally over. “Thank you Zimbabwe Defense Forces,” placards read as they cheered Mugabe’s resignation.
   The celebrations, it seemed, were an expression of relief not only that the 93-year-old president had fallen, but also that his wife Grace would not be taking over.
For some time already, the power struggle over who would succeed Mugabe had split the ruling Zanu-PF party. The G40 group, headed by Grace, was largely seen as a continuation of Mugabe rule. The Lacoste group, which had the support of the security forces, was named for its leader, Emmerson Mnangagwa — known as “the Crocodile.”
   Mugabe fired Mnangagwa, his vice president, in early November in an apparent attempt to pave the way for Grace’s rise to power. But with the military behind him, the Crocodile snapped back from exile and masterminded the coup that led to Mugabe’s downfall and his own inauguration as Zimbabwe’s president on November 24. While Mnangagwa promised to rebuild Zimbabwe and reengage with the world, there was also concern that he wasn’t much of an upgrade. For most of Mugabe’s reign, the Crocodile served as the president’s henchman.
   Among other things, he’s been accused of carrying out the Matabeleland massacres in the 1980s, of vote-rigging and instigating violence around the 2008 election, and of plundering the country’s natural resources.

Never return
   Prominent among those resources are the diamonds mined at the infamous Marange fields, which have also played a part in the power struggle between the G40 and Lacoste factions.
   “Marange has been a game changer in Zimbabwe’s politics,” says Farai Maguwu, director of Zimbabwe’s Center for Natural Resource Governance. While the battle for control of the fields has not been made public, it parallels the power struggle within Zanu-PF’s hierarchy, he explains.
   Indeed, shortly after the 2008 election, which had been marred by violence and voter intimidation, the government launched Operation Hakudzokwi (“never return”) to drive out the 35,000 informal miners from Marange and take control of the resource. More than 200 people were killed in the operation, Human Rights Watch reported at the time.
   While the government later lobbied successfully for acceptance to the Kimberley Process, Marange diamonds remain sanctioned by the US and the European Union to this day. Meanwhile, the ownership of Marange remains unclear, and the resulting lack of accountability and transparency has fueled suspicion that billions of diamond dollars have been siphoned into private coffers — including those of the political and military elite — rather than benefiting the people.
   Mugabe himself has accused the companies mining at Marange of robbing the country of its wealth, saying last year that of the $15 billion earned from the area, government revenue had barely exceeded $2 billion.

Flimsy structure
   The missing funds prompted the state to form the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Corporation (ZCDC) in December 2015, in an effort to centralize the various mining concessions at Marange into a single entity. The government declined to renew the mining licenses of the seven companies previously operating at the site, but incorporated three of them into the ZCDC instead, NGO Global Witness explained in a September report titled “An Inside Job.”
   The move had all the marks of Grace Mugabe, says Maguwu. The ZCDC’s own legal basis is questionable, he adds, given that it was formed as a private company while operating as a state-run entity. The companies that lost their licenses have reportedly contested their expulsion in court.
   With Grace now out of the picture, Maguwu says, it’s unclear how the ownership of the ZCDC will play out. The company’s future is uncertain in any case, according to the Global Witness report, which cites the ZCDC’s tenuous legal foundations as well as reports of mismanagement and nepotism.
   Reverting ownership to the seven private companies that used to operate the fields may be even more problematic, given the recent developments in the country. The Global Witness report revealed that Zimbabwe’s Central Intelligence Organization, the military, notorious smugglers, and well-heeled political elites had all gained control of those companies — implying that the new military-backed political leadership has an interest in Marange’s ownership.
   There is a risk that off-budget revenue will continue to flow to anonymous recipients, Michael Gibb — a campaigner at Global Witness who authored the report — tells Rapaport Magazine. Maguwu has expressed similar concerns, alarmingly adding that human rights abuses have recently escalated in the Marange area. Yet, as Global Witness noted, despite these transgressions and the lack of accountability, Zimbabwe diamonds are traded freely on international markets with the Kimberley Process’s seal of approval. While Western markets have banned them, Global Witness suspects the rough is being exported to Dubai and Hong Kong, and then likely manufactured in India.
   “Rather than encouraging transparency and reform, international demand has delivered a market for Zimbabwe’s diamonds,” the group observed.

Sustaining the joy
   The industry, Maguwu stresses, must raise issues such as the lack of transparency and the human rights abuses at Marange. Gibb adds that there needs to be an audit of the diamond companies mining there, to shed light on their ownership structures, production and sales.
   The government can make a difference, and so can the trade. Mnangagwa has a lot on his plate as he works to revive the economy and restore confidence in the country’s future, and sorting out the mess at Marange would send a positive message that he means business. From the industry’s viewpoint, Zimbabwe’s new political reality presents an opportunity to understand who is mining at Marange and where the diamonds are ultimately going — and hold all parties accountable.
As Gibb argues, it’s not just that a democratic state will result in a more responsible trade of Marange diamonds, but that a responsible trade can bring about a more democratic state.
   Like the Mugabe government, diamonds have been a curse for Zimbabwe, when they should be a blessing. By insisting on transparent and ethical mining of the Marange fields, the industry can help ensure that Zimbabwe’s newfound joy continues.

Photo: Alamy Stock Photo

Article from the Rapaport Magazine - December 2017. To subscribe click here.