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REPORTS that regional and international diamond buyers last week snapped up Zimbabwe’s gems for a song at an auction in Harare call for a re-look at the way the country markets it precious minerals. The country, despite ranking among the biggest diamond producers in the world, will have nothing to show for them when these minerals deplete as they are not renewable.

Earlier this week, we reported that Marange Resources’ 75 000 carats were taken up for a paltry US$5 million instead of more that US$10 million, while Diamond Mining Company had its parcel of 46 000 carats sold for US$2,8 million instead of over US$5 million.

Yes, Zimbabwe is under diabolic illegal sanctions imposed by the West, but Zimbabweans have a right to demand an explanation as to why the same precious stones that have created a fortune for regional countries such as South Africa and Botswana are going for a song here?

If private international buyers are conniving with Zimbabweans to feast on our diamonds for free, then Zimbabwe should move with speed to value-add the gems in line with Zim-Asset.
Government should work in partnership with local private companies to establish facilities for local diamond cutting and polishing.

It is more lucrative and beneficial to the country for Zimbabwean companies to do diamond value-addition rather than for regional and international companies to airlift the raw gems to their countries to get maximum value.

Those Indian, South African, Batswana and Namibian firms and individuals who bagged our diamonds for between US$60 and US$70 per carat do not even need to add any value to them.

They can simply re-sell at the prevailing price of US$150 per carat and still reap super profits.
We are forced to ask: Are we so desperate as a country that we export jobs that should benefit our youths instead of speedily mobilising resources to set up our own facilities so we can derive maximum benefits from finite minerals?

The country indeed faces a dilemma in that by selling the diamonds on lucrative markets such as Antwerp in Belgium or Dubai it risks having the proceeds of the sale either confiscated by agents of white former farmers or by the US State Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, but local auctions definitely need to be relooked at.

Government should probe if there is no connivance between foreign buyers and local companies protesting the sale of diamonds locally, which eliminates chances for engaging in some shenanigans.

If it is true that some local diamond mining bosses and Government officials who have been benefiting from the sale of the gems in foreign markets were behind the depressed prices, then stiffer penalties should be imposed on them once caught.