via Zimbabwe-EU set for diamond trade talks | The Source By Chipo Musoko, November 11 2013
Government and diamond mining officials left the country on Monday for Antwerp, Belgium to tie up agreements on Zimbabwe exports, two months after the European Union lifted sanctions on the state-owned mine Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation, the mines minister said.
The EU lifted sanctions on the ZMDC in September which allowed Zimbabwe to negotiate better prices after relying on middlemen to undercut the EU sanctions for several years.
“It is important for (Zimbabwe) to familiarise itself with the marketing systems, regulatory frameworks and logistical issues because, we want all systems to be in place ready to market our diamonds,” Mines minister Walter Chidhakwa told The Source.
He said diamonds exports should start soon after the delegation’s return.
Last month, officials from the Antwerp World Diamond Council (AWDC), the world’s leading diamond trading hub visited the country and toured diamond mines in Chiadzwa area in eastern Zimbabwe.
The Zimbabwe government has said it will use extra cash generated from diamond sales to finance its ambitious Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (ZimAsset) which it says will grow the economy by up to 10 percent by 2018.
ZMDC is the primary holder of mining concessions in the country and owns diamond miner Marange Resources.
It also partners five other diamond mining companies – Mbada Diamonds, Diamond Mining Corporation, Anjin Investments, Gye Nyame Diamonds and Kusena Diamonds which are also exploiting the gems.
COMMENTS
The whole diamond story is an unmitigated dosier of mafia underworld zanu and global intrigues. Diamond merchants say diamonds are their best friends. Mugabelanders know it’s their worst fears
EU is a major development partner for Zimbabwe and also funds various local civil society groups. Continuing with sanctions and retreating to confrontationalism would not only irreparably damage EU relations with Africa but could also punish ordinary Zimbabweans, including the very civil society groups which the EU promotes. In politics and diplomacy, being inside the tent, however reluctantly, is more effective than shouting from outside.
Ultimately, the EU will probably give a heavily caveated recognition of the polls and the new government. It is, however, also likely that EU recognition of the new reality in Zimbabwe will cause friction with the more hardline US and Australian positions. Indeed, Zimbabwe could add to the increasingly spiky EU-US relations in the wake of the Snowden revelations about US spying on EU embassies.
Africa’s future is up to Africans. The United States supports the Zimbabwean people in their effort to fully realize the promise of democracy, human rights, and economic development. Zanu-PF is highly unlikely to do anything in the short-term which would enable the west to remove the sanctions and rob Mr Mugabe of his favourite campaign weapon. So the Zanu PF leadership finds itself on very thin ice and if they make one wrong step, they will break through and freeze to death. They simply cannot make good on their promises to pay higher salaries to Government workers and the armed forces, they cannot improve allowances and pensions to war veterans. They have to resume debt collection with tough penalties and they have to persuade a skeptical business world that there is life after the elections and under Zanu PF leadership.