Source: Mpofu Parly probe over missing $15bn postponed – DailyNews Live
Farayi Machamire 20 February 2018
HARARE – Parliament has postponed the hearing of Home Affairs minister
Obert Mpofu summoned to answer to the controversy surrounding the missing
diamond revenue estimated at a staggering $15 billion.
Parliamentary portfolio committee on Mines and Energy chairperson Temba
Mliswa said Mpofu, who was the minister of Mines and Mining Development
from February 2009 to September 2014, will now appear before the committee
on Thursday.
Other high-ranking officials set to appear before the same committee are
Mpofu’s successor Walter Chidakwa who served in the same portfolio between
September 2014 and November 2017 as well as former Finance minister
Ignatius Chombo.
“Out of respect of Morgan Tsvangirai’s funeral, we will postpone Monday
and Tuesday’s parliamentary portfolio committee for Mines and Energy oral
evidence appearances to Thursday and Friday,” Mliswa said.
Mpofu had been invited to appear before the committee to give an insight
into what could have transpired regarding the missing $15 billion.
He was also set to explain issues around how licences were given to mining
companies and the role played by the Zimbabwe Mining Development
Corporation (ZMDC).
In 2016, Mugabe made startling claims that his government could not
account for a jaw-dropping $15 billion lost through nefarious activities
by players involved in the extraction of the gems in Chiadzwa.
“We’ve not received much from the diamond industry at all. I don’t think
we’ve exceeded $2 billion, yet we think more than $15 billion has been
earned,” Mugabe told the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation television on
the occasion of his 92nd birthday.
Long before Mugabe had made the claims, an international diamond watchdog
campaigning against blood diamonds had released a damning report in 2012
alleging that more than $2 billion worth of diamonds had been salted away
from the Chiadzwa fields.
Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) also claimed that Mugabe’s inner circle,
together with some international dealers and a large network of criminals,
had connived in “the biggest single plunder of diamonds the world has seen
since Cecil Rhodes”.
The fields in Chiadzwa or Marange are considered to be one of the world’s
biggest deposits of diamonds.
They are located in Manicaland Province, a few kilometres outside the
mountainous City of Mutare.
While the gems were discovered decades ago, a diamond rush only ensued in
2006, resulting in Mugabe’s government deploying the military to restore
order.
There were reports that several lives were lost during clashes between the
army and diamond panners.
At the height of organised mining in Marange, Mbada Diamonds, Marange
Resources, Anjin Investments, Diamond Mining Company, Kusena and Gye Nyame
were some of the companies that were involved in the extraction of the
gems in conjunction with ZMDC.
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