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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Marange, Chiadzwa and other diamond fields and the Kimberley Process - Index of articles
Anjin
abandoning us - former Chiadzwa villagers
NewsDay
October 23, 2012
https://www.newsday.co.zw/2013/10/23/anjin-abandoning-us-former-chiadzwa-villagers/
Hundreds of
villagers who were displaced from their original homes in Chiadzwa
in February 2011 to
pave way for diamond mining by a Chinese company, Anjin Investments,
are facing acute food shortages as the company has stopped supplying
them with food handouts.
The company
had initially pledged to continue providing relief food every four
months, but stopped doing so in October last year.
The villagers
told NewsDay over the weekend that they were now surviving on selling
firewood to businesspeople at the nearby townships to raise money
to buy food.
Contacted for
comment, Anjin’s deputy general manager Getrude Takawira said
her company was no longer able to provide food handouts due to cashflow
problems.
She, however,
said the company last provided the villagers with food handouts
in May this year. “The company is going through serious cashflow
shortages, but we are trying to encourage them to do irrigation.
We will be there for them,” Takawira said.
“We have
471 families relocated to Arda Transau and the infrastructure we
put there includes that for water supply and we fund the chemicals
used. We were supposed to have completed an irrigation scheme. We
were trying to build sustainability and that is why we gave them
water and they have land. We should all try to build sustainability.”
The affected
villagers who were moved to Arda Transau accused the Chinese-owned
diamond mining company, which is in a joint venture with the government,
of reducing them to destitutes.
Their spokesperson
Cephas Gwayagwaya claimed: “We were last given food in October
last year. We were supposed to receive food quarterly. Other companies
are doing that to villagers.”
“As a
result people are now surviving on selling firewood to residents
in Odzi. We are forced to wake up early in the morning to find the
firewood and then sell it for a paltry $1 a bundle.
“The money
that we are getting is not enough. We walk for long distances to
get customers.
“We paved
way for mining and the investors are getting a lot of money yet
we are living in abject poverty. We want to meet the President (Robert
Mugabe) because we suspect that he is being given wrong information
about our wellbeing,” said Gwayagwaya.
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