Africa: Special Report - Zimbabwe Elite's Role in Billion Dollar Diamond Leakages Revealed

Harare — Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, got the world jawing angrily in early March this year. He used his traditional birthday interview with State television to reveal that his country had produced diamonds worth more than $15billion over six years, yet only about $2 billion of the gems had been accounted for (https://soundcloud.com/zimpapers1980/president-interviewwav).

He dumped the stinking carcass at the doorstep of the eight mining companies that had been operating in the sprawling diamond fields of rural Marange in eastern Zimbabwe and claimed he had no clue how the leakages happened. That way, the 92-year old statesman who has been in power for 36 years skirted, quite conveniently, the role played by the ruling elite in the leakages.

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