RAPAPORT... The diamond industry will be one of only two sectors to
which Zimbabwe’s “indigenization” law will still apply after a scaling-back of the
law on black ownership.
The government will restrict the Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment law, which requires foreign companies active in the country to be
majority-owned by local black people, to diamonds and platinum, newly appointed
Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Patrick Chinamasa said in last week’s
budget speech.
Following the announcement, ownership of the Marange fields (pictured), Zimbabwe’s main source of rough diamonds, remains unclear. The
government set up the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Corporation in
December 2015, and subsequently declined to renew the mining licenses of the
seven companies that previously operated at the site, non-profit Global Witness
said in a report on the nation’s diamond sector in September.
Zimbabwe’s rough-diamond production stood at 1.8 million
carats in the year to September, compared with 1.3 million carats in the whole
of 2016, according to Chinamasa’s December 7 statement.
The government is also considering a special economic zone
for diamond cutting in the city of Mutare, the minister said.
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