There are no more real diamonds in Zimbabwe, the Finane Minister has admitted.
Speaking during the parliament Question and Answer session, in response to MDC-T MP James Maridadi on why government was not realising enough revenue from diamonds, Minister Patrick Chinamasa said there are no more substantial diamonds to talk about at Marange.
“Alluvial diamonds are finished and most of the companies we gave the right to mine there have no capacity to engage in further exploration. Just one company has the capacity to do so and it has discovered that we still have the kimberlite which requires more capital,” he said.
Chinamasa’s comments come two years after former Mines Minister Walter Chidakwa revealed that the diamonds have been looted by foreigners, suspected to be the Chinese.. He said in 2012, “We have been operating on a model which gave access 100 percent to those that sit somewhere outside Africa,’ he said.
Meanwhile this year Professor Jonathan Moyo echoed that the country no longer has diamonds.
Moyo told forumists on microblogging website Twitter, “Diamond revenues from alluvial diamond mining have dramatically shrunk. We now need to come terms with this reality,” said Moyo in response to a question on where diamond revenue was being channelled.
At the height of the diplomatic fall-out with the West President Robert Mugabe also declared that the country’s problems would be a “thing of the past following the discovery of about a quarter of the world’s diamond deposits”.
Moyo and Chinamasa‘s admissions come two years after former Finance Minister Tendai Biti protested that diamond revenues were being siphoned out of the country by ZANU PF through the backdoor.
6 Replies to “Diamonds Reduced to Zero 0%, Finance Minister Finally Admits”
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The great diamond heist. Our hangman is gonna been very very busy
The great diamond heist. Our hangman is gonna been very very busy
l came to zimbabwe with even more investment than the russians,l never got to see 1 daimond in 6 weeks l was there.this was last febuary,we did pof at zims central bank,
l came to zimbabwe with even more investment than the russians,l never got to see 1 daimond in 6 weeks l was there.this was last febuary,we did pof at zims central bank,
When Mugabe signed the $4.8 billion Darwendale Platinum mining deal with the Russians in September last year, there was also a second deal but not made public at the time for the Russians to mine for diamonds. The diamond venture was between Russian defence conglomerate Rostec State Corporation, Vi Holding and Vnesheconombank and the local partner Zimbabwe military, through its Pen East Mining Company. The deal is the partners will share the proceeds and not pay any tax in Zimbabwe. Not a penny.
The Zimbabwe Military has muscled in on the Darwedale Platinum project too on the understanding that the two partners will not pay local tax for the first five years at least. In the initial deal the Russians’ local partner was the state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) and all local taxes were to be paid, as normal.
Mugabe has already approved the arrangement with the Zimbabwe military as the new local partner according to a report in South Africa The Mail and Guardian.
Minister Chinamasa is lying that there are no diamonds left because if he admitted that there were he would have to explain why he has failed to collect a dollar in tax from this bounty. He is sick and tired of the feeble excuses why he has. Besides by telling the nation there are no diamonds left he is helping the naïve and
gullible Zimbabwe public to come to terms with the reality that they have once again been cheated big time.
When Mugabe signed the $4.8 billion Darwendale Platinum mining deal with the Russians in September last year, there was also a second deal but not made public at the time for the Russians to mine for diamonds. The diamond venture was between Russian defence conglomerate Rostec State Corporation, Vi Holding and Vnesheconombank and the local partner Zimbabwe military, through its Pen East Mining Company. The deal is the partners will share the proceeds and not pay any tax in Zimbabwe. Not a penny.
The Zimbabwe Military has muscled in on the Darwedale Platinum project too on the understanding that the two partners will not pay local tax for the first five years at least. In the initial deal the Russians’ local partner was the state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) and all local taxes were to be paid, as normal.
Mugabe has already approved the arrangement with the Zimbabwe military as the new local partner according to a report in South Africa The Mail and Guardian.
Minister Chinamasa is lying that there are no diamonds left because if he admitted that there were he would have to explain why he has failed to collect a dollar in tax from this bounty. He is sick and tired of the feeble excuses why he has. Besides by telling the nation there are no diamonds left he is helping the naïve and
gullible Zimbabwe public to come to terms with the reality that they have once again been cheated big time.