Ever since the discovery of these fields in late 2008 there have been stories of human suffering and exploitation akin to the gold mining scenes in the Legend of Zorro movies. Mugabe and his cronies were the chief owners and beneficiaries of the diamond operations and all outside scrutiny was not allowed. Even the country’s Members of Parliament and Prime Minister Tsvangirai were barred from visiting the diamond fields.
For a long time Zimbabwe was stopped from openly trading the Chiadzwa and Marange diamonds until the human rights abuses stopped.
The Kimberly Process (KP), the international watch dog tasked to stop the trade in bloody diamonds, has since lifted the trade in Zimbabwe Chiadzwa because of the disunity within the KP membership but, worse still, because of the increased pressure from Prime Minister Tsvangirai and his MDC party. Tsvangirai wanted the ban lifted even though he was still not allowed to visit the diamond fields.
Prime Minister Tsvangirai was finally “allowed” to visit the Zimbabwe’s bloody Chiadzwa and Marange diamond fields on Thursday 16 February 2012. As expected, Tsvangirai gave his thumbs up to the operations although it is still clear Mugabe and his conies are still the chief beneficiaries of the diamond sells.
“We regard diamond revenue as a major contribution to the fiscus,” PM Tsvangirai argued. But with Mugabe and his cronies still in firm control of the diamond operation and the revenue from it; no doubt most of the revenue will go to Mugabe and not the public fiscus!
Tsvangirai is well aware that Mugabe and Zanu PF are using the money from the sell of Chiadzwa diamonds for their selfish gain including funding political violence. Mugabe has stubbornly refused to give up control of the Chiadzwa and Marange diamonds and he knew that Tsvangirai would relent soon enough and let the tyrant have his way. And that is exactly what has happened. This is not the first time Tsvangirai has done this; Mugabe refused to give up his demands to have the lion’s share of the political power resulting in current power sharing arrangement in which Mugabe is the boss and Tsvangirai is the office messenger!
Zimbabwe will never get out of this political and economic mess with individuals like Tsvangirai leading the charge for change, democracy and justice!
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