Almost 30kgs of diamonds from the controversial Chiadzwa diamond claim have reportedly disappeared after being removed from the Reserve Bank by police last week.
The contested diamonds, which form part of the ongoing ownership wrangle of the Chiadzwa claim, had been moved to the central bank under Supreme Court orders. It's understood that Mines Minister Obert Mpofu on Thursday tried to stop the diamonds being transported to the central bank, by producing a letter from the registrar of the Supreme Court, Nomonde Mazabane.
The letter detailed that the court order to move the diamonds did not necessarily include all the diamonds mined from the Chiadzwa claim, and that the order had been reversed. But Harare's deputy sheriff, tasked with enforcing the orders of the court, refused to accept the terms of the letter and the diamond transfer continued.
According to the South African Press Agency (SAPA), the gems were finally transferred in three strong boxes and under a heavy police guard to the Central Bank. But while the stones were being registered, a senior police official overseeing the process halted procedures and removed the gems. He reportedly said "there have been new developments," and that the registrar's letter was 'true'. The whereabouts of the diamonds are still unknown.
The missing diamonds are part of a much larger collection that was mined by the UK based mining firm Africa Consolidated Resources (ACR) as well as those mined illegally by the state authorised Mbada mining group. ACR which holds the legal title to the diamond claim in Chiadzwa was evicted at gunpoint from the claim in 2006; a move that a High Court judge last year ruled was illegal. The government has appealed this ruling, and the transferral of the diamonds to the central bank was ordered as a temporary measure until the ownership wrangle was completed.
"We don't know where they (the diamonds) are," ACR's lawyer, Jonathan Samkange told SAPA. "The police robbed the central bank."
He said the letter from Supreme Court registrar was 'illegal' because court officials cannot give rulings on behalf of judges. He added that "an order by the Supreme Court is final and cannot be appealed." Journalist Jan Raath explained to SW Radio Africa that the letter is suspected to have been a result of 'bullying' from Minister Mpofu. He said such a letter is a 'travesty of justice' and unheard of in legal circles, arguing that foul play is definitely suspected.
The Mines Ministry under Minister Mpofu is supposed to be cleaning up its act, after it escaped a ban from international diamond trade over human rights abuses at the Chiadzwa fields. The international trade monitor, the Kimberley Process, has given Zimbabwe until June to fall in line with international trade standards. But these standards are still being flouted.
For example, monitors from the Kimberley Process are meant to be in place to oversee any export of diamonds. But an official from the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ) made the shock admittance in parliament last week that diamonds were being airlifted from Chiadzwa to Harare without police or Kimberley Process supervision. Masimba Chandavengerwa, the MMCZ's acting head of marketing told a parliamentary committee on mines and energy: "At the moment, the airlifting is being done without our knowledge."
The diamonds meanwhile are also speculated to be at the centre of yet another wrangle, this time between the warring ZANU PF factions of Joyce Mujuru and Emmerson Mnangagwa. Just days before the diamonds were transported to the central bank, ACR's offices were raided by armed men said to be in the employ of Mujuru's husband, Solomon. According to the Zimbabwe Mail which last week quoted an intelligence source, the Mujuru camp was 'furious' over the plans, backed by the Mnangagwa camp, to transfer the diamonds to the RBZ.
"They fear their rivals are planning to enrich themselves and eventually dislodge them from the succession contest using the proceeds," the Zimbabwe mail reported.
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Are Africans 'overseeing' how the eivl europeans handle their loot and the loot of their bandit bankers, who destroyed the world's economy? NO!
Whatever happens, Zim Patriots MUST NEVER allow euorpean thieves to 'oversee' ANYTHING African!
Sell the diamonds to the Chinese, to the Indians, and the Jews in Israel will certainly want to buy those Zim diamonds!
To hell with the european dictatorial THIEVES, who are always foolishly pursuing world domination!
Omugabe well you talk about thieves from Europe and other places in the outside world but the only thieves here are inside Zimbabwe and guess what they are from the Zanu-Pf circle..
We are sorry that our ancestors were intelligent, advanced and daring enough to explore the wild oceans to discover new countries and to concur and develop these.
We are sorry that those who came before us took you out of the bush and taught you that there was more to life than beating drums and chasing animals with sticks and stones.
We are sorry that they planned, funded and developed roads, towns, mines, factories, airports, all of which you now claim to be your long deprived inheritance so you have full right to change and rename these at your discretion.
We are sorry that our parents taught us the value of small but strong families, to not breed like rabbits and end up as underfed, illiterate shack dwellers living in poverty.
We are sorry that when they provided you with schools, you decided they looked better without windows or in piles of ashes. We happily gave up those bad days of getting spanked in our all white schools for doing something wrong, and much prefer these days of freedom where problems can be resolved with knives and guns.
We are sorry that it is hard to shake off the bitterness of the past when you keep on raping, torturing and killing our friends and family members, and then hide behind the fence of "human rights" with smiles on your faces.
We are sorry that we do not trust the government. We have no reason to be so suspicious and short sighted seeing that there has never been a case where any of these poor hard working intellectuals were involved in any form of corruption or irregularities.
We are sorry that we do not trust the police force and although they have openly admitted that they have lost the war against crime and criminals, we should not be so negative and just keep on hoping for the best.
We are sorry that we basically flung open our border posts, and now left you competing for jobs against illegal immigrants from our beautiful neighboring countries. All these countries that have grown so strong after kicking out the "settlers", you should follow their excellent example and grow big and strong like them!
We are sorry that we don't believe in witchcraft, beetroot and garlic, urinating on street corners or trading woman for cattle, maybe we just grew up differently. So sorry that when we are forced into sharing the same establishments, sometimes we loose our temper, that is totally uncalled for.
We are sorry that your medical care, water supplies, roads, and your electrical supplies are going down the toilet because skilled people who could have planned and resolved these issues had to be shown away because they were of the wrong ethnic background and now have to work in foreign countries where their skills are more needed.
We are so sorry and should really try harder to be more tolerant and learn to get along with EVERYBODY around us, one big happy family.
omugabe you are such a blind fool lamenting about other nations looting you. Are the names Joyce Mujuru and Emmerson Mnagagwa who are currently also wrangling over the diamonds Westerners? You guys simply do not know what the bloody hell you are doing except kill, steal and plunder your own country. YOU, yourselves are the Zimbabwean thieves and looters. There were no Westerners at your Central Bank when those 30kgs plus of diamonds went missing. YOU Zimbabweans did the disappearing act. Face facts, take responsibility and put things right in your country instead of blaming others.