Communities blame govt for diamonds looting

Speaking at the Manicaland Alternative Mining Indaba organized by Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) in Mutare yesterday, the chairman of Marange Development Trust (MDT),  Malvin Mudiwa said before the government took over mining operations in Chiadzwa the lives of the majority of the communities were well up as they sold diamonds for their own benefit.

Said Mudiwa: “When diamonds were discovered in 2006 we saw a drastic increase of our livelihoods.  Our lives were upgraded and most of the villagers in the mining communities started experiencing a better life.”

He added: “Paying school fees for our children became a thing of the past. We could afford school uniforms for our children and everything and we had a new life. We bought various household properties. Many bought cars and everything went well in terms of our livelihoods.”

Mudiwa said all came to an end when the government took over the mining operations.

“When the government came in we were then exposed to serious poverty. The government introduced foreign mining companies and policies without involving the communities. The government blundered by ignoring the communities in the operations of mining,” he said.

“The villagers were then reduced to destitutes as they were sidelined in all the operations. I want to make it clear that it is sad that these Chinese were mining our diamonds and sending the cash to their countries while ignoring our calls for help. We know that they took our diamond money to their countries and what they leave for us are gulleys, do we eat gullies?” said Mudiwa.

“Now that those mining companies are gone with our billions of dollars, the villagers in Chiadzwa have lost their fields and all grazing areas. Some children no longer go to school because of non availability of school fees. Many of the locals have remained unemployed. Most of the villagers are among the poorest yet foreign companies extracted our diamonds and sent the revenue to their countries without doing anything to the well deserving villagers,” said Mudiwa.

From the alternative indaba, the communities then called for the strict monitoring and engagement of ZCDC mining operations to avoid the previous practice that saw the country losing billions of dollars in diamond revenue through plundering.

They emphasized that there were many unfinished business and many promises that have not been fulfilled by the previous mining companies and challenged the ZCDC for dialogue and community engagement.

Government early this year ceased operations of nine diamond companies following their failure to renew their licenses.