via Cops uncover $140k gem cache in car – NewZimbabwe 23/01/2016
TWO illegal diamond dealers hid $139,600 worth of diamonds inside a car seat, it was reported on Friday.
It took a team of five police detectives more than an hour to find the diamonds after Never Chikwenha and Abbas Macky’s car was stopped at a tollgate in Ruwa.
The two were “well-known” diamond dealers in Mutare, which is close to the Marange diamond fields.
The development comes just a day after Zimbabwe’s central bank chief John Mangudya complained that authorities “don’t know what has been exported” in terms of diamonds from the country.
Chikwenha and Macky appeared in court in Harare earlier this week. They have been granted bail.
Diamonds were first discovered in Marange in 2006, prompting a diamond rush.
A military clampdown and government takeover of the fields in late 2008 has not stopped smugglers, with authorities admitting the leakages are probably significant.
There are frequent reports of arrests of diamond smugglers from Mutare.
Chikwenha and Macky were reportedly on their way to Harare to sell the gems.
Detectives were given a tip-off that the pair had diamonds in their car when they left Mutare, but waited until they got to the Ruwa tollgate to pounce because at that particular gate there is “nowhere to run”.
Last week it was reported that a Lebanese diamond dealer from Mutare had assaulted a gardener who stole a diamond from his home.
The gem appeared to have been stored illegally at the house.
The dealer is alleged to have boasted that he “wouldn’t be arrested in Zimbabwe”, a possible reference to powerful political connections he has made.
Mangudya last Thursday called for much more transparency and accountability in the diamond industry.
COMMENTS
The diamonds were discovered in 2006, ever since their discovery they have never brought any meaning full return to the country except to the Chinese and the little information spoken by Joice Mujuru that India managed to build an new City from the diamonds. Obert Mpofu then Minister of mines bought literally the entire Victoria Falls and Bulawayo, and bought a bank at a staggering $22 million, Mugabe refurbished his dairy industry with state of the art equipment imported from Germany, built a mansion suitable for a rich oil baron in the middle east among poor borrowdale neighbors. Gideon Gono bhad buses and chicken farm. Chiwenga and other military gurus bought properties and divorcing old wives and marrying young ones. All this is diamond money. Now these people if not send by the ZANU PF big wigs will have to pay in the eyes of the public the sins of these and others not mentioned. While Biti was minister of finance, he stated the leakages of diamond and other mineral monies, Chindori Chininga died after producing a damning report on the diamonds and other minerals. The real culprit is Mugabe, Grace and military gurus.
Amina you have summed it better, all diamond leakages are Government linked from A to Z.
Amina…and all this time I thought the problems of the country were due to ‘illegal’ sanctions-silly me!
However I wasn’t altogether wrong-turns out there were sanctions applied-only it was Mugabe and his henchmen applying them!