THE CONTROVERSIAL Marange diamond fields in Zimbabwe are being mined by companies whose most senior personnel are drawn from security forces loyal to President Robert Mugabe, a report claimed yesterday.
The study is the first comprehensive attempt to establish the ownership of two companies operating at Marange since concessions were awarded there four years ago by Zimbabwe’s mining ministry, stated campaign group Global Witness, which carried out the research.
Anjin Investments, which claims to be the world’s biggest diamond miner, has Zimbabwean board members who include senior serving and retired military and police officers, and the permanent secretary at the ministry of defence, say the authors of Diamonds: A Good Deal for Zimbabwe?
The second mining company, Mbada Diamonds, is chaired by former air vice marshal Robert Mhlanga, the international NGO says.
Mr Mhlanga is widely reported to have been Mr Mugabe’s personal pilot. He was also a prosecution witness in the 2003 treason trial of then Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangarai.
Global Witness senior campaigner Nick Donovan warned yesterday that the authorities needed to ensure that diamond mining companies were not used as an off-budget cash cow by Zanu-PF loyalists in the military and police.
“If the next election is accompanied by violence, there’s a real risk that any bloodshed will be funded by diamond revenues,” he said.
Global Witness said Mbada had a complex structure, with associated companies located in secrecy jurisdictions including Mauritius and Hong Kong.
“Corporate anonymity and the use of secrecy jurisdictions can be used to hide the true beneficiaries of business deals and have the potential to conceal corruption,” Mr Donovan said.
Last October MDC MP Eddie Cross tabled a motion in parliament calling on colleagues to nationalise the mines in a bid to stop the widespread plunder of state resources by security forces.
He said his research into mining companies’ activities revealed that €2 billion worth of diamonds had been looted.
“I have evidence that the value and volumes of Marange diamonds are being underestimated and are being used to subvert the democratic process in Zimbabwe,” Mr Cross said in an interview shortly afterwards.
Zimbabwe’s Marange fields are thought to have one of the richest deposits of diamonds in the world. However, they have been steeped in controversy.
The company that originally registered a claim at Marange in 2006, African Consolidated Resources, was sidelined by Mr Mugabe’s Zanu-PF government for unknown reasons. The fields were then left unattended, which drew in thousands of local people who established an informal mining industry in the area.
In a bid to regain state control over the mines in 2008, Mr Mugabe’s government launched a brutal military crackdown on illegal mining in the area, which human rights organisations say left hundreds of miners dead.
Critics of Zanu-PF have long held the belief that diamond sale profits linked to Marange are siphoned off to enrich his supporters and provide a war chest for coming elections.
Despite the controversy surrounding Marange, the Kimberley Process, the intergovernmental diamond certification scheme, recently approved unlimited diamond exports by Mbada and is considering giving the same endorsement to Anjin.