Posts by Charles Rukuni

Zimbabwe should speed up the promulgation of the Diamond Act because diamonds can make a decisive difference for the country.  This can be a positive difference where the country’s gross domestic product will increase as a result of greater transparency and accountability of diamond resources to the State. Or it can be negative because the history of alluvial diamonds in Africa has been a sad one.  But Zimbabwe cannot afford to be another Sierra Leone.

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Agriculture will drive Zimbabwe’s economy which will be in its third year of growth next year. The economy is expected to grow by 9.3 percent up from this year’s estimated 8.1 percent. The economy grew by 5.7 percent last year.

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The forced buying of items and goods like $1 for 10 bananas when one only wanted one or two or $1 for 20 mice, as per joke that was going around recently, could now be a thing of the past as the government is planning to bring in US dollar coins.

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Mines Minister Obert Mpofu says Zimbabwe is now going to sell its diamonds produced after the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme Plenary in Jerusalem this month without any supervision because its mines have been declared KP compliant. It will, however, continue to work with the KP Monitor to Zimbabwe, Abbey Chikane, to certify all diamonds produced before the plenary. He said this in a letter to outgoing chairman Boaz Hirsch of Israel. Hirsch had sent out a notice saying Zimbabwe was not allowed to sell any diamonds from Marange because it had not been cleared by the Kimberley Process. Mpofu said Hirsch’s notice was unlawful and said Zimbabwe could take legal action against him and Israel. This view is supported by the African Diamond Producers Association. Below is Mpofu’s letter to the KP chair.

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African Diamond Producers say Zimbabwe should now be allowed to sell its diamonds from Marange without any hindrance because its mines are compliant with the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme. They have also threatened to take unspecified action if the outgoing  KP chair Boaz Hirsch does not withdraw his statement that Zimbabwe should not sell its diamonds.  The African Diamond Council and African Diamond Producers Association has 15 members which are: Angola, Botswana, Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo (which is taking over chairmanship of KP in January), Ghana, Guinea, Lesotho, Liberia, Namibia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Seven other countries: Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Mali, Mauritania,  Mozambique, Uganda and Zambia- have observer status.

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Zimbabwe’s diamonds saga took a strange twist after KP Monitor for Zimbabwe Abbey Chikane authorised the sale of diamonds from Marange worth $160 million. Non-governmental organisations raised hell. Outgoing KP chair Boaz Hirsch had to issue a statement saying the authorisation by Chikane was illegal. To give our readers a clear picture of what transpired, we published Chikane’s explanation. Today we publish Hirsh’s statement in full. This will be followed by the response from the African Diamond Producers Association and lastly by Mines Minister Obert  Mpofu’s response.

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