President Mugabe was right!
4 - 16 March 2014 - The Observer
D
BARNABAS THONDHLANA
iamond mining companies have
refused Minerals Marketing
Corporation of Zimbabwe
(MMCZ) officials entry into
fields on the grounds that they would “leak
information on operations” to the outside
world, a move which has promoted massive
leakages of diamonds.
The MMCZ, as a result, is forced to depend
on third-party information on tonnages mined
and carats extracted.
Insider sources at the MMCZ told The
Observer that while they felt it was their duty
to monitor mining activities and exercise a
supervisory role, their hands were tied.
“We have our monitors who are
permanently stationed in Marange whose duty
it is to make periodic inspections of diamond
mining companies to keep track of diamond
ore extracted and the diamonds mined,” said a
source who preferred anonymity.
“However, we have met resistance from
the mining houses, who in some cases only
allow partial inspection and in others have
denied us entry altogether.”
The source made specific mention of
Marange Diamonds, whom he said went as far
as approaching the then Mines minister Obert
Mpofu to seek his intervention.
“The minister was convinced by their
argument that allowing MMCZ official’s entry
would create a security risk and immediately
gave the order that we be denied entry.”
The source said on a number of occasions
the monitors were even chased off premises,
with the mining companies saying MMCZ
monitors “had no right to superintend their
operations”.
This is in stark contrast to the Zimbabwe
Revenue Authority, which has permanently
stationed officers at sites like African Distillers
and Delta Beverages to monitor usage of pure
alcohol in their blending.
According to Global Witness, an
international non-governmental organisation,
about $2 billion in diamond revenues have
been unaccounted for since 2008.
So dire is the lack of transparency in
diamond mining that President Mugabe
recently took the Zimbabwe Minerals
Development Corporation to task for being
lapse.
“ZMDC, you have a 50 percent
shareholding in these mining companies but
you are not stationed there,” Mugabe said.
“You rely on information supplied by the
mining companies on how much they have
produced, which you do not
know.
“What if they are lying to you? How do
you know that what they tell you is correct,”
Mugabe said.
The laxity in monitoring and supervision
was even a cause for concern for the Brusselsbased Antwerp World Diamond Centre
(AWDC).
AWDC said the money remitted to
government was low because the companies
were not paying related taxes.
“The failure of the companies to remit the
resource depletion fee and marketing fees to
the Treasury is of deep concern. Could it be
they are exempted from paying these taxes in
the contracts they have? Contracts should be
made available to the public and the diamond
mining companies should publish their
financial statement 2