via The big story: How $15bn ‘diamond money’ could help Zim – NewsDay Zimbabwe March 8, 2016
The question remains, what happened to the $15bn diamond money that President Robert Mugabe claims was not accounted for?
NewsDay presents to you, in video and infographics, the implications of the development.
1. VIDEO: MUGABE’S INCONSISTENCIES
Perhaps, Zimbabweans are asking the same question to the president , who over the past years, has defended the mining processes in Marange. Chinese companies, have- until recently – been the main diamond miners in Marange.
MiningManufacturingInfrastructure. Roads etc.Maize importationAgriculture funding
COMMENTS
Please keep it safe for me. Remember you had my permission to steal those diamonds. CEO ZIMBABWE.
What about Gracy’s own diamond cutting enterprise in HongKong and all the diamonds smuggled out by the CEO himself to feed his own trough. Massive theft mostly by his own people and himself, No real investigation to follow – because it would not touch the real culprits, What a farce we have here – would not be surprised of Mujuru is blamed for the disaster.
Just something else – was one of the MDC members not ambassador in Australia and did not the CIO accused her of misconduct when she refused to allow the smuggling trough to go through her office under diplomatic means?
Start at the very top to find the main culprits.
How did we Zimbos get it wrong so long?We have a cabinet which doesn’t care an inch about us. We have recycled clueless minister. How could we sleep so long while one nonentity chows $15 billion.
Do we have a working public service ?
So many people have died due to this corruption. Will someone account ?
Let us go right back to when the diamond rush first started in the Marange diamond fields. It will be remembered that de Beers discovered the diamond fields but then sold their interests there to the company called Africa Consolidated Resources (ACR).
When ACR started to develop the diamond fields the ZANU PF Government moved in and virtually stole their mining operations. High Court rulings against this takeover were simply ignored.
Since then it is an open secret that all the mining there has been done by a group of private companies operating at the behest of senior ZANU Officials. Some crumbs that fell from the diamond sorting tables were thrown to the Government of Zimbabwe as a sop.
Now we have a situation where Mugabe is now crying that Zimbabwe has lost US 15 billion in these mining operations. Of course it has, and perhaps much more. But all of this “lost” money has gone into Mugabe’s pockets, and to that of his carefully selected cronies.
In other words the story of the Marange diamonds is the same as that of the loss of Zimbabwe’s world famous commercial farms…greedy and evil thieves having no clue of what to do with their ill-gotten gains! A sad story of easy-come-easy-go.
Maybe it’s time we agree on “job descriptions” for the country’s top officials – how can the top man ask where the nation’s money has gone to? Where were they when it was disappearing? Whose job is it to ensure that national earnings are accounted for? And the figure sounds unrealistic – 15 billion means we need no money from anyone and hence the sanctions talk becomes irrelevant!
Bunch of mindless thieves all of them. Britain has a lot to answer for in letting these mongrels take over!!