Anti-Diamonds Lobby of Shame

Republic of South Africa Minister of Mines Susan Shabangu has spoken at a Kimberley Process Certification gathering in Washington, D.C. She voiced support for Zimbabwe's efforts to market its diamonds internationally., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Anti-diamonds lobby of shame

November 5, 2013 Opinion & Analysis
Tichaona Zindoga
Zimbabwe Herald

The forthcoming Kimberly Process Certification Scheme meeting in South Africa and the major coup that Zimbabwe scored in recently hosting the Antwerp Diamond Corporation delegation which will open profitability for the country’s gems, have triggered a familiar reflex. There are a number of significant incidents that will serve to demonstrate how Zimbabwe remains at the centre of a shameful and sustained campaign to blot its image, and maintain the same on the international forum mainly for the consumption of a particular self-serving audience and for the benefit of some parochial local interests.

The world saw it before, during and after the inter-party dialogue between Zanu-PF and the two MDCs which culminated in the formation of the inclusive Government in 2009, as lobbies aligned to the opposition would picket and conduct seminars and talk shops to influence discussions on Zimbabwe.

The recent visit to the UK by MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai where he gave a “lecture” on Zimbabwe’s diamonds and their impact on the politics of the country, which we were made to understand was made a last-minute accommodation by the University of Oxford, is to be read in this context.

So, too, should be a slew of stories over the past month or so over the subject of “who benefits from Zimbabwe’s diamonds” and the indictment of Zimbabwe on claims of how billions of diamond money has disappeared from the sovereign purse.

The African Public Policy and Research Institute has even mooted a seminar in Pretoria, South Africa, which is titled “Zimbabwe: The Political Economy and Minerals”, supposedly with the aim of bringing a positive influence to Zimbabwe, when it is well known that the purpose of the same would be to impugn Zimbabwe’s enjoyment of the God-given resource.

Farai Maguwu’s Centre for Natural Resource Governance went further to label a soccer tournament sponsored by Mbada Diamonds Company, by far the most productive and most responsible miner in Chiadzwa, a “cup of shame”, ostensibly siding with locals who, in Maguwu’s wisdom or lack of it, are not benefitting from the resource in their locality.

(Mbada has rolled out several corporate social investment programmes in areas of water and sanitation, as well as providing model housing amenities for relocated families, among others). It will be useful to cross-examine some of the attempted criminalisation of Zimbabwe’s diamond resources.

In his address at Oxford, Tsvangirai claimed that “the discovery of diamonds has indeed followed the all-too-familiar script and turned out to be a curse rather than a blessing for the country,” that there was “militarisation” of the diamond fields; that with “Zanu-PF in control of natural resources and the mining sector is that the diamond industry has neither helped in promoting development or democratisation in the country”; there was lack of transparency and leakages and failure to remit satisfactory revenues to the State and riven with corruption.

With his Western audience in mind a sycophantic Tsvangirai went further to claim that, “There is a heavy involvement of the Chinese in our diamond industry,” whom he blasted for what he alleged to be secrecy and controversy as well as unfair labour practices, corruption and “serious leakages”.

He put in that the “lack of vision and proper plans in this industry have meant that apart from derailing the democratic processes, diamond mining is still not geared towards development in the country.”

It does not take much to see how Tsvangirai’s campaign against Zimbabwe’s diamonds goes hand in hand with his broader project of seeking regime change on behalf of his Western friends whom he goes further in trying to please by painting a bad picture of China.

The net effect of his address will be to dissuade the market from engaging Zimbabwe and to conjure all sorts of pictures to make stick the tag of blood diamonds, which has so far been hard to sell.
Still Tsvangirai tries.

He will continue to: like his life depends on it.

Tsvangirai’s script can be read with a report by Angus Shaw last month that did pervasive rounds in the Western media.

The report told of the story of different fortunes where “Despite living in an impoverished country under sanctions, some in Zimbabwe seem awash in money, judging by the Mercedes-Benzes parked at a country club and the private woodland estate with artificial lake and mansion built by the nation’s police chief.”

“The wealth enjoyed by just a few comes, at least in part, from the vast Marange diamond . . . (but) most Zimbabweans remain mired in poverty, with government coffers short on funds to build and maintain the nation’s roads, clinics, utility services and schools, questions are being asked as to where all the money went and who benefited.” The charge sheet also included how diamond money was allegedly not being paid into the national treasury, with some US$2 billion in Zimbabwe’s diamond revenues unaccounted for.

The report decried “controversy and secrecy” in the exploitation of the resource, and expectedly laid into China who we were told “built an airfield at the Marange diamond fields…(and) executive planes arrive there and at a bonded warehouse alongside the runway at Harare’s main airport, without traceable flight plans or having to go through customs and immigration formalities, say commercial pilots who say they have complained of the irregularities to aviation authorities.”