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Minister Chidhakwa

Fidelis Munyoro Chief Reporter
The formation of the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company will see the proceeds from the sale of diamonds going directly to the fiscus, for appropriate allocation to the various Government ministries for the benefit of the people, a Cabinet Minister has said.

Mines and Mining Development Minister Walter Chidhakwa, also denied reports from some sections of the media claiming that there was looting of diamonds in Chiadzwa.

He said Government took a bold decision to take over diamond mining in Chiadzwa, after realising that it was not benefiting from the companies it had granted concessions to mine the precious metal.

“We must create the systems and these systems do not happen of their own accord, they happen because people deliberately and purposefully take positions, some positions which may be hard to swallow,” said Minister Chidhakwa in an interview with ZiFM last night.

“When you sit in your job and make a decision, if you are making an easy decision that makes you a good boy everyday, you must ask yourself whether you are doing the right thing. When you start making hard decision that make other people unhappy but make the entire nation happy then I think we are being serious.”

Minister Chidhakwa said the decision his ministry made on consolidating diamonds companies into a single entity had been lauded by many people.

This, he said, did not go down well with some people who were benefiting from the country’s gems at the expense of the nation.

“There is no reason why this country is not able to produce enough food because we have dams but we do not have irrigation systems,” he said.

“There is no reason why the people of Marange, the people of Chiadzwa themselves should not have an irrigation system that can enable them to produce agricultural commodities for themselves because the diamonds are now used for national respo- nsibilities.”

Minister Chidhakwa denied reports of looting in Chiadzwa and explained the level of security in the diamond area.

“There is a bigger perimeter and the level of security is not as tight as where the diamonds are being picked,” he explained.

“That is called the red zone. The access to that zone is what we have said in this intervening period, nobody gets to the red zone.”

The minister said police were nowhere near the red zone, but were guarding the entire processing and concession areas ensuring that nobody tampers with anything in all these areas.

“There is no looting and systems are not collapsing in Chiadzwa. There are people who are disappointed by the minister’s move and naturally they will find ways of denigrating the process.”

Minister Chidhakwa assured the nation that Government would do the best it can to ensure that the proceeds from the sale of diamonds benefit Zimbabweans and does not disappear out of the confines of this country.

“I also want to tell Zimbabweans that we are very determined and committed to doing this. It is the one thing, which I think if we can do, will contribute immensely to the development of this country,” he said.