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Marange, Chiadzwa and other diamond fields and the Kimberley Process - Index of articles
Diamond mining should benefit communities – President Tsvangirai
Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC-T)
October
25, 2013
President Tsvangirai
has called for diamond mining to benefit the communities where mining
is taking place and the people of Zimbabwe and condemned the current
state where only a few benefiting from the mining of the gems.
The President
made the call last night while delivering a speech
at the Oxford University in the UK on, “The Zimbabwean experience
of diamonds and how they have shaped our politics.”
“Diamond
mining has to benefit the communities in which mining is taking
place and the people of Zimbabwe as a whole. Article 13 of our new
Constitution
provides that the State must ensure that local communities benefit
from the resources in their areas,” said President Tsvangirai.
“Unfortunately,
the experience so far under Zanu-PF in control of natural resources
and the mining sector is that the diamond industry has neither helped
in promoting development or democratisation in the country,”
he said.
President Tsvangirai
said instead, diamond mining has increased the gap between the minority
that are extremely rich and the majority who remain poor while at
the same time fuelling the undermining of democratic processes.
“All activities
in the diamond mining industry must be consistent with the spirit
of constitutionalism. This implies safeguarding and promoting the
fundamental rights and freedoms of the people as well as generally
upholding the Rule of Law. Above all, there must be respect for
property rights.
“To this
extent, one tends to agree with the recommendations of the parliamentary
portfolio committee which investigated the diamond mining industry
of Zimbabwe,” he said.
In part the
parliamentary portfolio report that was released this year reads;
“The Committee observed with concern that from the time that
the country was allowed to trade its diamonds on the world market,
government has not realized any meaningful contributions from the
sector.
This is despite
the fact that production levels and the revenue generated from exports
has been on the increase. There are serious discrepancies between
what government receives from the sector and what the diamond mining
companies claim to have remitted to Treasury”.
President Tsvangirai
said the forced displacement
of the local people in Marange in Manicaland and the problems
they continue to face following their displacement remains a cause
for concern.
“The poverty
endemic in this area is not consistent with the value of the diamonds
extracted from their land. It is displeasing how a people can continue
to wallow in poverty in the midst of a treasure benefiting the well-heeled
and the well-connected in government,” he said.
It is estimated
that the country now has the capacity to supply 25 percent of the
global diamond market.
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