Mbada Diamonds wins Supreme Court appeal 

Source: Mbada Diamonds wins Supreme Court appeal – NewsDay Zimbabwe June 22, 2018

THE Supreme Court yesterday dismissed an appeal filed by the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) and effectively barred the firm from entering all diamond concessions owned by Mbada Diamonds on behalf of its major shareholder, Grandwell Holdings in the Chiadzwa diamond fields.

BY CHARLES LAITON

Mbada Diamonds was sometime in 2016 ejected from Chiadzwa diamond mining fields following the cancellation of its operating licence by the government, culminating in a bruising legal battle where several court orders were made in its favour, but appealed against by ZCDC.

In its ruling yesterday, the Supreme Court said Grandwell Holdings was entitled to institute a derivative action to protect Mbada Diamond’s rights at its Marange concession, adding that the gems miner had been unlawfully and violently removed from its concession area by government through then Mines minister Walter Chidakwa.
The court ordered the appellants Mines and Mining Development minister Winston Chitando, Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC), Marange Resources (Pvt) Ltd and ZCDC to pay the legal costs.

Pending the appeal, the ZCDC and the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) and those acting on their behalf had been interdicted from collecting Mbada Diamond’s diamond ore from its concession area.

The ZCDC had also been barred from accessing areas secured by Mbada’s security personnel and interdicted from interfering with Mbada Diamond’s security arrangements, in any manner, in respect of its concession area.

In March this year, Grandwell Holdings again petitioned the court seeking to bar the ZCDC from conducting a diamond sale, which was expected to take place.

Grandwell filed an urgent chamber application accusing the government, through the ZCDC, of intending to sell diamonds extracted from its concession area unlawfully and also seizing actual diamonds which were contained in a vault when Mbada Diamonds was evicted from the diamond fields in 2016.
The application was granted.