Harare — ZIMBABWE has lost at least US$400 million over the last nine months through looting of Marange diamonds and smuggling of the precious stones.

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr Gideon Gono yesterday stressed the need for the Government to come up with a robust system for mining and marketing diamonds that guaranteed maximum benefit to the people of Zimbabwe.

Presently, only few people are benefiting from the discovery of the precious stones in that part of the country.

Investigations over the past few months have revealed that hotels in Mutare were every weekend full of top officials and foreigners, some of whom employed runners who would buy diamonds during the week only to hand them to their principals in hotel rooms during the weekends.

This could not be allowed to continue, said Dr Gono, while addressing students, lectures and the Gweru business community at the Midlands State University yesterday.

"The diamonds are in Zimbabwe, in areas where Government enjoys full support, no opposition, no foreign government interference, no sanctions, no drought. What more do we want? We are our own worst enemies," said Dr Gono.

"There is no other area where implementation inertia is as glaring as that of the area of diamond mining. It's almost criminal the extent to which we are sitting on such a resource. Showing indecisiveness while Rome is burning.

"We are struggling to get foreign currency for food, drugs, fuel and debt servicing among others. We are also sitting on methane gas -- the largest reserves in sub-Saharan Africa -- yet we are crying for foreign currency.

Diamonds were among the most valuable and precious minerals produced in this country with immense potential to contribute significantly to foreign currency earnings.

This, therefore, called for the diamond sector to be treated as a special sector, which dealt with the high value, low volume mineral requiring close monitoring throughout the mining and marketing processes.

In this regard, the diamonds -- both rough and polished -- could be used as a national reserve asset under the custody of the central bank. These could then be converted to foreign currency as and when necessary. The central bank could also use the diamonds to secure lines of credit and boost its foreign currency reserves.

"Lessons could be drawn from countries such as Namibia and Botswana where the largest diamond producers -- Namdeb and Debtswana -- are 50:50 joint venture companies between De Beers and the respective governments," said Dr Gono.

Under this arrangement, the two governments were directly involved in all activities from mining to marketing of diamonds.

Furthermore, the existence of a diamond valuer in both countries to counter check that all diamonds were sorted and valued correctly meant that the respective countries would enjoy full benefits from the exploitation of the mineral.

"We must regard diamonds as oil, as fertilizer, as drugs . . . soon winter wheat will be on us and people will be blaming the governor for shortages of fertilizers yet we are playing games with diamonds," said Dr Gono.

Diamonds in this country were currently being produced at Murowa Diamond Mine in Zvishavane, River Ranch in Beitbridge and the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation's special grant in Marange.

The diamond rush in Marange, which began a few months ago, has attracted thousands of panners from Zimbabwe and other neighbouring countries.

Dr Gono also revealed yesterday that some senior officials in banks were leaving their jobs to herd cattle in Marange as it had become more profitable to do so.

"This is true. Some people now find it more profitable to go and herd cattle in Marange because you can just collect a few pieces of diamond as you herd the cattle. People are making lots of money," he said.