UNACCEPTABLE would ordinarily be the best term to describe startling and thus revulsive revelations made by President Robert Mugabe that companies mining diamonds at Chiadzwa could have milked the country of well over US$13 billion in potential revenue.
The truth is that this is simply an obscene and clear case of primitive accumulation of wealth.
In an interview with ZBC TV last week to mark his 92nd birthday, President Mugabe narrated how the secrecy surrounding diamond mining had resulted in the country being stripped naked by the companies’ gluttonous and ridiculous looting of the revered resource.
“We have not received much from the diamond industry at all,” said President Mugabe.
“Not much by way of earnings. I don’t think we have exceeded US$2 billion or so, no and yet we think that well over US$15 billion or so have been earned in that area.
“So, where have our carats been going, the gems?
“There has been quite a lot of secrecy in handling them and we have been blinded ourselves, that means our people whom we expected to be our eyes and ears have not been able to hear or see what was going on.
“A lot of swindling and smuggling has taken place, and the companies that have been mining, virtually, I want to say robbed us of our wealth.”
The country is understandably shocked and in palpable heartbreak.
This is so given the efforts made by President Mugabe and Government in ensuring that Zimbabwe was awarded the coveted Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) compliance.
In 2011, Government’s spirited drive to outdo efforts by garrulous non-governmental organisations (NGOs) threw Zimbabwe right back into diamond mining and trading reckoning with dazzling commitment that won it KPCS certification in Kinshasa.
“The Road to the KPC compliance was a challenging one,” the then Mines and Mining Development Minister Dr Obert Mpofu said at the official opening of the inaugural Zimbabwe Diamond Conference in Victoria Falls in 2012.
The arduous journey took Zimbabwe from Swakopmund, Namibia, to Tel Aviv, Israel, St Petersburg, Russia, back to Jerusalem and then to Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the country was eventually confirmed KP (Kimberley Process) compliant through the Kinshasa administration decision in November 2011.
However, just five years on, the same companies on whose side Government fought, have become the country and people’s nemesis.
In 2013, the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) projected the Marange diamond fields would produce 16,9 million carats, making the project ‘the single largest in the world in terms of carats produced annually’.
That remained a pipe dream and we are duly licking our wounds as an aggrieved nation today.
Where is our US$13 billion?
With their inflated egos and unpalatable arrogance, the companies had the temerity to turn down Government’s proposal for consolidated operations as if they were doing the nation any good.
Mines and Mining Development Minister Walter Chidhakwa is right and in many ways too.
We cannot simply do business with bigoted parachute companies with outdated mining methods and obsolete equipment who shamelessly lie to the Zimbabwean masses that they are the best thing to happen to this country.
No.
We have been unfortunate as a nation to have associated ourselves with dubious outfits disguised as diamond companies.
This has to stop forthwith.
And we must remain armed with the knowledge we had thieves and crooks in our midst.
These thieves and crooks must account for the US$15 billion they looted from us.
It is our money.
It is needed to repair roads.
It is needed to provide food for impoverished masses across the country.
It is needed to repay our debt to international creditors.
It is needed to service our dilapidated infrastructure.
In a sector where remittances are normally transparent, those companies’ ‘contributions’ to treasury have not only been full of indescribable inconsistencies, but have been disappointingly glaring.
Which is why the announcement last week by President Mugabe that Zimbabwe is cleaning up operations at the Chiadzwa diamond fields to tap into more of the billions of dollars generated there for the good of the citizenry heralds a new era in that sector.
“That is why we have decided that this area (Chiadzwa) should be a monopoly area and only the State should be able to do the mining in that area” said President Mugabe.
“You cannot trust private companies in that area, none at all.
“And we should have learnt from the experiences of countries like Botswana, Angola, Namibia, etc.
“We might partner with a leading diamond company, which is already well-established.
“Fine; we may be able to do that, but on good terms.
“Botswana was telling us their deal, that is President (Ian) Khama, that they work with De Beers and they have had to demand that they get more than 70 percent of the earnings that are made by De Beers because they reckon that over the years, De Beers has been having a lion’s share of their diamond wealth and this is what we are trying to do now: Start afresh.
“After all, the real kimberlite mining has not been done.
“It was all alluvial so far, just doing the sands, the loose earth and the conglomerate, of course, cutting the stones through and then getting whatever carats.
“That is what the Chinese company, Anjin, was doing.”
While our search for our stolen US$13 billion continues, a fresh start with competent and honest companies is what is needed.
Let those with ears listen.