Messages From Zimbabwe

The Supreme Court has ordered the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation and the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe to cease operations on diamond mining claims formerly owned by African Consolidated Resources in Chiadzwa pending finalisation of the ownership wrangle.

This means the two firms exploiting the diamond fields should also stop, but retain the right to remain on the sites pending a solution.

In the full judgment explaining a Supreme Court order handed down on January 25, Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku emphasised that 129400 carats of diamonds seized from ACR in 2007, when Government cancelled their permits, should be kept at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

He said a letter earlier written by the Registrar of the Supreme Court informing the concerned parties of the court’s intention to give reasons for the order of January 25 should not be misinterpreted as reversing the order.

The Chief Justice said if anyone had removed the diamonds from the central bank, that would be deemed unlawful and contemptuous of the highest court in the land.

“The balance of convenience favours the applicants (ZMDC and MMCZ) remaining on the site of the claims pending appeal, but they must cease all mining activities and it is so ordered,” said Chief Justice Chidyausiku in the judgment made available yesterday.

“Allowing the applicants to continue mining has the potential of causing irreparable damage to the respondents should the appeal fail.

“The diamonds are to be kept at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe until the finalisation of the appeal.

“To interpret the letter of the Registrar to the parties as reversing my very clear order of January 25, 2010 that the diamonds are to be kept at the Reserve Bank pending appeal is the height of mischief.

“If anyone has removed the diamonds from the Reserve Bank, he has done so unlawfully and in contempt of the order of this court.

“The diamonds must be returned to RBZ immediately in order to purge the contempt. Failure to do so should attract serious consequences,” he added.

ACR and its five subsidiaries - Canape, Dashaloo, Heavy Stuff, Possession and Olebile Investments - owned the claims until 2006 when Government cancelled their permit.

Through their lawyer, Mr Jonathan Samkange of Venturas and Samkange, ACR successfully challenged the cancellation in the High Court and Justice Charles Hungwe validated it.

He ordered the seized diamonds to be returned to ACR.

But ZMDC and MMCZ appealed against the judgement in the Supreme Court. That appeal is yet to be determined.

Chief Justice Chidyausiku’s order instead directed the diamonds to be taken to the RBZ as a neutral and secure place, pending finalisation of the matter.

Different interpretations were drawn from the January 25 order with some parties seeking to evict the firms that were on the disputed claims while others suggested the Registrar’s letter meant the Chief Justice had completely set aside the High Court order.

(Source)

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has threatened to sell diamonds from a field where the military is suspected of using forced labour.

The Kimberley Process has given Zimbabwe until June to rectify alleged military abuses against civilians at the eastern Marange diamond fields.

But Mugabe threatened to sell the diamonds without the watchdog’s permission.

“We are trying to play it their own way, that is following the KP, but we can do it otherwise,” Mugabe told reporters in Harare. “We can sell our own diamonds elsewhere.”

(Source)

Unending ownership disputes with the efforts international advocacy groups against so-called “conflict diamonds” may yet undermine Finance Minister, Tendai Biti’s hopes of using revenues from the controversial Marange diamond fields to boost the country’s economic development.

When announcing the Government’s new economic blue-print, Minister Biti said the formalisation mining arrangements at the Chiadzwa diamond fields near the Eastern Border city of Mutare, should benefit the country and send positive signals to international investors over the credibility of the government’s mining policies.

The Zimbabwe government recently moved to end chaotic informal exploitation of the diamond fields by facilitating joint ventures between the state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) and two private companies.

However another company with prior claims to the fields, African Consolidated Resources (ACR) immediately sought relief in the courts precipitating a series of applications and counter applications between it and the joint venture partners which remain unresolved.

And in a move whose effect could only be to add to the legal disputes, the Government’s mining commissioner recently indicated that he intended to cancel the claims of ACR and other companies in the area with effect from the 25th of this month because they “were improperly pegged and registered on land that had been reserved against prospecting and pegging”.

However ACR and other affected companies can appeal the decision to the Minister of Mines and Mining Development and, failing that, take the matter to the High Court.

Again, as if this were not enough legal trouble, local inhabitants targeted for relocation by the Government to make way for the mining operations are also in the court seeking an order to halt their removal until they are properly and adequately compensated for their losses.

Meanwhile, diamond traders, human rights organisations and other advocacy groups continue to campaign for a ban on Zimbabwe diamond exports over allegations of rights abuses.

Ingle & Rhode, the UK’s principal retailer of ethical jewellery and custom engagement rings produced using “conflict-free” diamonds and “fair trade gold”, became the latest firm to call for a ban on Zimbabwean diamond exports.

“Continuing to allow exports of Zimbabwean diamonds in such circumstances would make a mockery of the Kimberley Process - which was established in 2003 to assure consumers that the diamonds they were purchasing were not funding conflicts or human rights abuses - that is meant to avoid just such practices from occurring,” the company said in a press statement.

(Source)