“The discovery of huge deposits of diamonds in Marange, eastern Zimbabwe, in the mid-2000s came at a time when Zimbabwe was facing crises on multiple fronts,” said Global Witness in its recent report.
“However, rather than injecting much-needed life into an economy in severe decline, Zimbabwe’s diamonds were ruthlessly exploited by the elite under the Mugabe-led government and came to be far better known for their association with human rights abuses, corruption and looting.”
This is very true, the discovery of diamonds has enabled Zanu PF to bankroll extensive and very expensive vote rigging and vote buying schemes that have help the regime remain in power. So instead of the bounty from diamonds being a blessing, povo’s salvation, it has become the people’s curse as it paid well those keeping them in servitude!
In a less guarded moment in 2016, the then President Mugabe admitted the country had been “swindled” of $15 billion worth of diamond revenue. He never arrested any of the swindlers.
"As we focus on recovering our economy, we must shed misbehaviours and acts of ill-discipline which have characterised the past. Acts of corruption must stop,” said the incoming President Mnangagwa after seizing power from Mugabe in November 2017 coup.
Mnangagwa has been in power for over a year now and has yet to arrest even one of the swindlers and recover the first dollar of the looted fortune. Indeed, the looting has never stopped as former Minister of Finance, Patrick Chinamasa, told parliament government continue to receive 1/6th of expected diamond revenue an year after Mugabe’s confession. The new Minister has never reported of any significant change.
Global Witness is well aware of the continued looting in Marange and has ventured to recommend steps to end the looting.
“To help to achieve a transparent, accountable and well-governed diamond sector,” concluded Global Witness, “we are urging the Zimbabwean government to take much-needed steps including:
- Making all beneficial owners of diamond companies, and any private investors, public;
- Publishing detailed information about all diamond mining related revenue flows, disaggregated by company, year, and type of revenue stream;
- Publication of any joint venture contracts signed with private investors;
- Requiring risk based supply chain due diligence by companies trading in Marange diamonds;
- Preventing the risk of the security sector receiving off-budget funding through control or ownership positions in diamond companies that is free from parliamentary oversight.”
Global Witness’ report is available at www.globalwitness.org or via Spotlight Zimbabwe.
As noted above, President Mnangagwa has done nothing stamp out corruption not because he did not know what to do ‘to achieve a transparent, accountable and well-governed diamond sector”. He has been at the heart of the Mugabe administration for the last 37 years; he knows the swindlers, how they were swindling the diamonds, how much, etc. etc.; and would have rounded them all up within days, if he had so wished. He did not because he lacked the political will to do it.
“You can’t expect us to reform ourselves out of power,” boasted Professor Jonathan Moyo, Mugabe’s most prolific propagandist and strategist and Zanu PF Minister and Politburo member.
As we know, Mugabe, Moyo and a few others Zanu PF G40 faction members were forced out of power on 15 November 2017 military coup. So they were “reformed” out of power by the gun, so to speak!
The wholesale looting of Zimbabwe’s resources, especially of the Marange and Chiadzwa diamonds, have bankrolled Zanu PF’s vote rigging and vote buying schemes. “You can’t expect Zanu PF to stop looting, to achieve a well-governed diamond sector and, most significantly, thus to reform itself out of power!” to paraphrase Professor Moyo.
By blatantly rigging the recent elections, President Mnangagwa and his junta regime have nailed their colours for all to see. The looting continues. Saques continuar! Vote rigging continues! Voto fraudulento continua!
This nation has waited for the last 38 years for Zanu PF thugs to do the right and honourable thing of stopping the looting; holding free, fair and credible elections; etc. Instead the looting, vote rigging, etc. have all continued and even got worse; dragging the nation deeper and deeper into this hell-on-earth we now find ourselves stuck in.
The only realistic hope of putting an end to these cursed Zanu PF cultures of looting and voto fraudulento is for the nation to finally grasp the nettle and demand that President Mnangagwa and his junta step down from high office. The regime rigged the recent elections, as all the respectable election observers have readily confirmed, and so the regime is illegitimate.
We have allowed Zanu PF to loot and rig elections and get away with it setting a dangerous precedence and one we must now put right. No one who rigs elections and is, per se, illegitimate will be allowed to govern.
Those who rig elections are committing high treason and instead of being rewarded with high office they will from henceforth be punished! This is the new precedence we want to set and one worthy of our resolve to make Zimbabwe a democratic nation governed by competent and accountable leaders!
BY JEFF KURAI CHAKANYUKA
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