A World Policy Institute report has
revealed a complex structure of diamond deals and dealers that span the globe,
with some of Africa’s most controversial diamond producers, including Zimbabwe,
being ‘looted’ to the benefit of a corrupt few.
In March this year a key player in
the industry, a Belgian firm called Omega Diamonds, was handed a record
breaking fine for tax evasion. The fine of $195 million is the highest the Belgian
governed has ever imposed on a national company.
The report said the illicit trade
produce $ 4 billion in profits alone. Assume a profit of 10% of turnover that
means $ 40 billion trade of which Africa’s corrupt leaders would be lucky to
get 0.1% of total value or $4 million. The slave trade was abolished 200 years
ago but there are new black traders selling Africa’s wealth for the same calico
cloth and a handful of beads!
Well
that sure explains why Belgium is pushing the rest of the EU to lift the ban in
the trade of Zimbabwe diamonds; the illicit trade is costing Belgium millions
of dollars in revenue. The fact that the looting will continue in Zimbabwe
itself and that Mugabe will go on to use the looted wealth to create a North
Korea in Africa with disastrous consequence to the people of Zimbabwe, the
region and Africa is of no consequence to Belgium!
12 comments:
Tunisians impatient for meaningful change two years after the “Arab Spring” the deposed the country’s last dictator, have once again taken to the streets demanding that the government should resign.
After years of brutal dictatorship it is hard to trust anyone; everyone is weary of whoever as-sumes power therefore after for fear he or she will become the next dictator. Admittedly the temptation for those who get in power to become dictators and thus secure for themselves and their followers a place on the gravy train the last dictator was forced to vacate is overwhelming. This is why it is so difficult for nations like Tunisia to elect a new government and move on. This is why having visionary leaders like Nelson Mandela during the formative stage is critical.
All these false starts by countries like Tunisia and Egypt are pushing the country nearer and nearer the edge; they could tip over and become another Iraq or Syria!
Nation should do everything possible to stop the establishment of a dictatorship because once one is established I s hard to get rid of it and when the nation finally do get rid of it the scars left behind will be even harder to heal
People like Supa Mandiwanzira live in cloud cuckoo-land because anyone living in the real world would see that Mugabe and Zanu PF have completely lost the plot. Mugabe stood up and was insulting everyone; the West, as usual, and, this time, the East and those in the Middle East were not spared the serpent’s tongue. Meanwhile it is no secret that the Zimbabwe government is broke. So where does Supa think the regime is going to get money from, now?
Unless someone bails the regime out it is doomed!
Mugabe was really reckless in the way he squandered the nation's wealth just to rig the elec-tions. Now Mugabe has found out that he over reached himself. The tyrant must not be allowed to get away with vote rigging, not this time!
No one else other than Mugabe himself has "destabilized Zimbabwe" and it is now a matter of months not years before Zanu PF collapses. Things far apart, the center cannot hold!
@ Chimbwido
Listen I am on the side of the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans whose lives have been turned into a hell-on-earth by Mugabe and his ruthless thugs - you included. If you really think that now that the regime is collapsing on itself the people of Zimbabwe are going to let you lot off the hook with this nonsense of "let us agree to disagree" then you are wrong.
You lot must give the wealth you looted back to the people and must account for all the innocent blood on your hands.
You must hang for what you did in Zimbabwe; there is nothing for you to agree or disagree about there. This is a matter of justice being served at long last! Agree to disagree; what are you wittering about! I have told you before and will tell you again; you lot bamboozled Tsvangirai, not every Zimbabwean is as incompetent as him.
@ Chimbwido
What makes think that Belgians are themselves fit to pronounce judgement on anyone who is an idiot and a hypocrite when the story of the $195 m fine is itself proof of just how corrupt that nation is! The very fact that a corrupt and ruthless murderous Mugabe regime is siding with the Belgians is further proof that the Belgians are themselves corrupt!
Belgium has a lot of egg on its face already, the lifting of the sanctions is becoming increasing untenable!
Mr Tendai Biti's last budget itself turned out to be a work of fiction because none of the diamond revenue he had expected materialized. But his successor, Patrick Chinamasa is even worse off - Mugabe soaked up all the little cash there was to finance the vote rigging.
Mugabe was so determined to "win" the July 2013 elections, nothing absolutely nothing was to stand in his way. In 2008 he had used wanton violence to "win" that year. He could not use the same method again this year; the only option left for him was to use money to bribe election officials, voters, PR companies to spruce up his image, companies like Nikuv, the Israel company, to corrupt the voters roll, etc., etc. All that costed money, lots and lots of money. And Mugabe did not hesitate when it came to spending money.
Well the chickens have come home to roost; Zimbabwe is bankrupt!
It is one thing for Mugabe to tell Chinamasa to "go find the money"! He rigged the elections but he is yet to learn that he can not rig the economy!
@ Lesgp
President Zuma had a chance to bring democracy and economic stability by getting Mugabe to implement democratic reforms. Sadly he failed to do so. So the political and economic mess in Zimbabwe has not been resolved and it will affect everyone in the whole region.
What is happening in Zimbabwe affects everyone in not only SA but the whole region. The same can be said about SA or Botswana, etc.
@ Ruwa
You have been doing that for 33 years and things are worse that ever! Mugabe rigged the elections and therefore he is illegitimate, it would be irresponsible to let him ruin the country! Mugabe must go and go he will!
@ William
It sounds like you are just one of those who prefer to bury his/her head in the sand and pretend everything is fine. Zimbabwe is broke, that is the reality by ignoring that reality you are not making things better but worse. We have a serious problem here, lets deal with it.
The root cause of Zimbabwe's problems is a tyrannical regime; Mugabe rigged the elections and he should not even be in State House.
The country is sinking and you keep talking about wanting to hear "good" things said of Zimbabwe. What "good" things are you wittering about!?
Mugabe was so desperate to "win" the July 2013 elections he over reached himself by spending all the looted diamond wealth and all public money too! Zimbabwe is broke!
He rigged the elections and now lets see if he can rig the economy too!
The solution to Zimbabwe's economic problems is intertwined with the solution to the country's political problems. To end the country's chronic problems of mismanagement, corruption and looting we need to restore the rule of law and a competent and accountable government. We need free, fair and credible elections which we will never have with first implementing all the GPA democratic reforms.
Mugabe will never ever implement any of the reforms, especially now with no pressure from SADC. The only way to get the reforms implemented, is by getting Mugabe out of the way. He rigged the elections and he is therefore illegitimate and must vacate State House.
The West has already rejected the July elections as not credible. Mugabe desperately needs money from the West to get out of this financial mess, that is obvious. Here is the deal: the West must lift the sanction, normalize relations with Zimbabwe and give him the money on condition that he releases the voters roll and allow an independent body to audit it. If there are no election irregularities give Mugabe the money if there are then Mugabe must accept the holding of fresh elections.
The single most important lesson Mugabe must learn here is that, if he rigged the elections, then he is not going to get away with it! Not again, not this time!
"Democracy and human rights are essential to the governance of all African countries", President Zuma's government tells us. Really?
Here is a President who has done nothing to force the tyrant in Harare, in his own backyard, to carryout the necessary democratic reforms agreed by all concerned were essential for free and fair elections. He had five years to ensure the reforms were implemented and in the end not even one reform was implemented.
Mugabe went on to blatantly rig the elections and President Zuma was leading the pack of African leaders congratulating the tyrant for a job well-done!
The reason why there is economic suffering and political strive leading to armed conflict and civil war, an altogether common occurrence in Africa, is because there is no faith in the democratic systems to guarantee the freedoms and human rights of the people including the right to free and fair elections.
Many African leaders, President Zuma being one of those, have tended to condemn one side or other after the armed conflict has started but did nothing for years or decades to address the underlying injustice in the country concerned.
For a country that has just allowed Mugabe to rig the elections, not for the first time either, SA has no moral authority to be preaching to Sudan or any one about democracy and good governance!
Gono says he has the right to pick a lawyer, Tendai Biti, of his choice.
Of course it is your right to pick any lawyer to represent you, assuming the latter freely agree; even one accused of murdering hundreds or thousands of innocent people has the right to a legal representative. That is the law and those who respect the rule of law must necessarily accept this important tenet of the law.
What most people find sicking in cases such as this one or Mugabe's murder of over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans is how people like that will value and defend a less right of their own, the right to a lawyer, but contemptuous disregarded life or death rights of others!
As for Gono being corrupt; I would like to hear how he got to be so rich without being corrupt!
If the case against Gono was prosecuted with the vigour it deserves; Gono, Kereke, many, many others in Zanu PF and even Tendai Biti may end up in Chikurumbi Prison!
Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa has finally produced the long awaited national budget. He said the economy will grow 6.4% government will collect $4.4 billion in revenue and receive over half a billion dollars in aid.
Well there is still a small matter of the rigged elections. Zanu PF should have released the voters roll by now so every could see Mugabe did not rig the elections, as he claims. The West are not going to reward vote rigging by re-engaging until the issue is resolved.
Even if the 6% GDP growth was to be achieve, what difference will it make to a country with unemployment rate seating at 80% plus already?
Still the Minister has come up with the money, like the magician pulling out rabbits out of the hat. If the rabbits are real then there will be eat to feed the 2.2 million starving Zimbabweans!
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