via Ruling on diamonds case set for next month | The Herald 7 November 2014 by Conrad Mwanawashe
Judgment in the confiscated $45 million Zimbabwean diamonds case will be delivered on December 4 after a Belgian judge heard the matter yesterday. The Belgian court also postponed the Dutch farmers claim to the same diamonds to December 18 when full hearing on the matter will be heard. The diamonds were confiscated by a South African firm Amari Platinum.
Advocate Mr Farai Mutamangira, legal advisor to the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development told Herald Business in an interview that a full hearing on the Amari matter heard been held and judgment would be delivered next month.
“We introduced our applications to establish the ownership of the diamonds by the mining companies separately in the course of the month of September. The full hearing was today (Thursday).
“We have now just been advised that the judge heard arguments on the Amari/ZMDC and the diamond mining companies’ case. The ruling or determination in that case will be available on the 4th of December,” said Advocate Mutamangira.
SA company Amari obtained an ex parte order to seize the proceeds of diamonds that were on auction at Antwerp over disputed cancellation of its platinum claims in 2010.
“What we expect is that the court will make a determination on whether or not the various diamond mining companies, Mbada, DTZ, Marange, Anjin, Gye Nyame and DMC, a determination on whether or not they have actually approved that they own the diamonds separately in their own name to the exclusion of ZMDC and the Government of Zimbabwe as shareholders. We are looking forward to that,” he said.
The Dutch farmers claim will be finalised on December 18 and the Zimbabwe legal team believes that the issues at play in the Amari case are the same as in the Dutch farmers’ case.Twelve Dutch white farmers have also approached the court seeking to attach the same diamonds after Government compulsorily acquired their farms under the land reform programme to settle landless blacks.“From our part it is the same legal arguments and principles which will be ventilated in the judgments of December 4 will basically tell us which way the Dutch farmers claim will go because if the court finds that the diamonds belong to the diamond mining companies to the exclusion of ZMDC then consequently it will also mean to the exclusion of the Government of Zimbabwe,” said Advocate Mutamangira.In the event that the court finds that the diamonds belong to the diamond mining companies, it will be safer that the diamonds come back home and then they are sold from here where there is no risk of attachment until Government and the diamond mining companies have managed to put in place mechanisms to prevent a recurrence.
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