Diamond firms dodge Parly – again!
Posted on March 10, 2010 | Category: Politics; Business, Sport
HARARE – The directors of two firms licensed to mine diamonds at the
Chiadzwa diamond field continued to play truancy with Parliament, dodging
for the second time on Monday a hearing to probe their activities at the
controversial diamond field in eastern Zimbabwe.
Mbada Investments and Canadile Miners – joint venture companies between
state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) and some South
African investors — did not turn up for the scheduled meeting with
Parliament’s portfolio committee on mines where they were due to explain
their work at Chiadzwa also known as Marange.
The directors of the two firms also failed to pitch up for another meeting
with the parliamentary committee about two weeks ago and irate legislators
yesterday said the committee was considering pursuing contempt of Parliament
charges against the two secretive mining companies.
“We have asked for advice from the deputy clerk because we want to nail
them. We are preparing for that and we want to conclude the process by next
Monday so that on Tuesday we move the contempt of Parliament motion,” a
legislator told ZimOnline.
But committee chairperson Edward Chindori Chininga was non-committal when
asked about the possibility of bring charges against the mining firms
telling reporters his committee will decide by Tuesday what action to take
against the firms.
“Come tomorrow, we will have a clearer position for you but I can confirm
that the two companies did not turn up for the hearing,” said Chininga.
Chininga’s committee two weeks ago warned the diamond miners they could face
contempt of Parliament charges if they fail to show up for hearings on their
companies and their mining activities.
The ZMDC last year partnered little known Grandwell of South Africa to form
Mbada Investments, while also partnering another obscure South African firm
Core Mining and Minerals to form Canadile Miners.
The joint ventures were formed as part of measures to bring mining of
diamonds at Chiadzwa in line with standards stipulated by world diamond
industry watchdog, the Kimberley Process (KP).
But the two companies’ operations in the notorious diamond field are
shrouded in controversy amid revelations that some members of the boards of
the two firms were once illegal drug and diamond dealers in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Sierra Leone.
The two firms are not known names in the diamond industry with for example
Grandwell known to have been involved in scrap metal dealing in South Africa
before they came to mine diamonds at Marange.
Marange is one of the world’s most controversial diamond fields with reports
that soldiers sent to guard the claims after the government took over the
field in October 2006 from a British firm that owned the deposits committed
gross human rights abuses against illegal miners who had descended on the
field.
Human rights groups have been pushing for a ban on Zimbabwean diamonds but
last November, the country escaped a KP ban with the global body giving
Harare a June 2010 deadline to make reforms to comply with its
regulations. – ZimOnline
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