In a keynote speech delivered at the 2010 CIBJO Congress in Munich, Germany, Eli Izhakoff, the chairman of the World Diamond Council (WDC), urged decisive action to end the intolerable human rights violations in the Chiadzwa diamond fields of Zimbabwe, located in the Marange region. Izhakoff stressed his belief that the Kimberley Process (KP) remains the best vehicle to combat those carrying out criminal acts there.
“Despite our frustration over the pace of the decision-making process, the KP is taking action to shine a bright light on the allegedly criminal activities,” he commented.
He went to say, “I cannot state this more strongly. To trade in diamonds from Marange today is, in effect, the same as supporting acts of violence against civilian populations.”
KP Inspections Begin
Early in March, Abbey Chikane, the newly assigned KP monitor, inspected the Marange fields. He also met with mining ministry officials and representatives of the government’s two mining firms, Mbada Holdings and Canadile Miners, according to the state-run Herald newspaper. Chikane told the Herald that he would not be based in Zimbabwe, but will visit the Marange fields monthly. His responsibilities entail providing quarterly reports to the KP regarding the progress of the joint work plan designed to bring Zimbabwe’s diamond industry back into KP compliance.
Responding to a barrage of questions from journalists at the Bulawayo Press Club, located southwest of Harare, Obert Mpofu, Zimbabwe’s minister of mines and mining development, denied allegations of corruption involving diamonds, claiming that senior members of his party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), were bent on destroying his political career, World News Connection (WNC) reported. Mpofu has been singled out on many occasions as one of the senior government officials involved in the plunder of Marange diamonds.
Mpofu Defiant
Later in the month, speaking to reporters just before appearing in front of a parliamentary committee investigating operations in Marange, Mpofu told the BBC that ousted London-based mining firm African Consolidated Resources (ACR), which he described as “controlled by one white man,” will never mine diamonds in the Marange diamond fields as long as he is in charge of the ministry. In addition, he reiterated that Zimbabwe was ready to sell the gems outside of the KP.
Mbada Holdings held a diamond auction that was halted by the government at the eleventh hour last January because the diamonds had not been cleared by the KP or the state’s Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ). At the committee meeting, Robert Mhlanga, the chairman of Mdaba, claimed that the auction was just a hoax designed to test the market, ZimOnline reported.
Mining Rights Questioned
On March 9, Tendai Biti, the country’s finance minister, told the BBC that all of the contracts and mining leases that Zimabwe’s government granted to diamond mining firms should be cancelled, as they were awarded fraudulently. Biti also said that the government had not yet received any revenue from the troubled Chiadzwa mining area.
Biti’s statements were in sharp contrast to an announcement made by Dominic Mubaiwa, the head of the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC), who told lawmakers in January 2010 that the government was given a dividend of $800,000, according to the BBC.
On March 24, Biti’s party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), released statements saying that Biti had been in a car accident and had been admitted to a private hospital in Harare and discharged the next morning. Several senior members of the MDC party have been involved in serious car accidents and rumors have abounded that they may have been caused by foul play.
Meanwhile, President Robert Mugabe was quoted in the Herald as accusing De Beers, among other multinational firms, of looting the Marange diamond fields while pretending to be conducting exploration work.
Andrew Bone, De Beers director of international relations, described Mugabe’s accusations as “incredible and fictitious,” Business Week reported. “The bottom line is that there are ridiculous allegations and there is no evidence of De Beers mining diamonds in that area,” he told the magazine.
— Additional reporting provided by Acquire Media.
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - April 2010. To subscribe click here.