GOVERNMENT is right to kick out the so-called diamond miners in the Chiadzwa diamond fields.
When we discovered huge amounts of this precious mineral, we thanked the heavens and pinned so much hope of economic revival on these stones.
There was so much alluvial diamonds that we concluded our circumstance, as a nation, would in no time transform for the better.
After crippling sanctions imposed by the European Union and US at the behest of the British, we all felt that in diamonds we had found a sanction-buster.
But alas, we have not realised any anticipated returns from the vast diamond fields.
In fact, we have been short-changed by the operators in the diamond fields.
The prognosis of the diamond fields was not off the mark, the land has wealth that will accelerate the growth of the economy in ways beyond imagination.
Diamonds extracted at the fields in the last six years are worth more than US$6 billion dollars.
But the country in that period earned a paltry figure, slightly above half-a-billion dollars.
However, we have heard reports of lavish lifestyles being led by operators of these companies abroad.
Many have procured prime real estate across the world.
This travesty is unforgivable.
We are not dumb, we know for a fact that Zimbabwe lies on the ‘Archaean Craton’, a rich belt that holds vast diamond deposits.
The Craton, which is said to stretch from the north-east of the country to the south-west, extends to Botswana.
In fact Botswana which has done so well supported mostly by diamonds, has ‘the tail-end’ of this Archaean Craton which we sit on.
So happy were we that the diamonds ‘exploded’ in a free Zimbabwe and not during the colonial era.
Had they been discovered during Rhodesia’s era, all the wealth would have been frittered out of the country and deposited in ‘Swiss’ accounts.
That is why we are livid that our resources are exploited in broad daylight at the expense of the indigenes.
We should not even begin to talk of this nation or that nation in this issue; we are talking of companies with individuals who have been callous and have prejudiced us.
As we have always sung, so will we continue to sing, unashamedly and without fear, ‘this is our heritage, tinoda Zimbabwe neupfumi hwayo hwese/Sifuna iZimbabwe lenotho yayo yonke.
We must own these diamonds 100 percent.
Let those who come be our employees to be paid according to performance.
That is why we have called on responsible authorities to empower our people, not only to protect the resources, but give them the skills of prospecting, of mining and of processing the vast mineral wealth.
We need to empower our young scholars to study the geology, mining, engineering and the technologies of extraction.
We must groom our young to take over ownership and running of the mining houses.
We make no apologies for wanting what is rightfully ours.
We are not making money from the seas like the West that is drilling and getting oil from off-shore rigs.
The land is ours and what lies beneath it must benefit us.
We do not want tit-bits and crumbs.
Our ngoda and all the other resources are our birthright, our heritage; nobody should dictate to us how we must extract them.
Hatingadyi nhoko dzezvironda vauyi vachidya mafuta enyika.