Minister says diamond officials may be crooks

Mpofu went on to tell a parliamentary probe into irregularities in the mining sector that it was virtually impossible to get clean people in the industry. Giving evidence to the parliamentary committee investigating operations in

Marange, Mpofu said he was aware that some of the directors of the two firms, Canadile and Mbada Mining, were involved in shady business deals, but challenged the committee to identify any investors in the diamond industry who were clean.

He said he had done his research and found that people in the diamond business globally are drug traffickers, smugglers or plain crooks. He said this was the trend worldwide and the committee was fooling itself by thinking that they could get a clean diamond investor, said a source, who attended the briefing by the minister.

The hearing was held behind closed doors.

The government-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) last year partnered little known Grandwell of South Africa to form Mbada Investments, which is mining diamonds at the Marange field.

The ZMDC also partnered another little-known South African firm, Core Mining and Minerals, in a joint-venture operation trading as Canadile Miners.

But parliamentarians have accused some members of the boards of two firms whose names have not been disclosed of being former illegal drug and diamond dealers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Sierra Leone.

Under the law, Mpofu can appoint the chairperson and deputy of the ZMDC board but has no authority to name people to sit on boards of joint venture companies formed by the state mining corporation and other entities.

One of the appointments is former Airforce of Zimbabwe helicopter pilot Robert Mhlanga, who has interests in Grandwell but was named by Mpofu to represent the ZMDC on the Mbada board as chairman.

According to diamond.net, Mhlanga was Zimbabwes first black helicopter pilot and worked as a courier for Mugabes late first wife, Sally.

Mhlanga is said to have made a fortune through various projects in Africa and was active in the DRCs diamond trade when Zimbabwean troops fought there.

The Mbada chairman is known to have close ties with Zimbabwes military establishment that is accused of stealing millions of dollars worth of diamonds from Marange and selling them on the foreign black market.

The committee accused Mpofu of failure to diligently vet people before forming partnerships with them to mine the Marange diamonds. Mpofu admitted that he did not follow laid-down procedures when he licensed Canadile and Mbada to mine diamonds at Chiadzwa. Sources said the under-fire minister vainly sought to explain away his actions by arguing that the country badly needed money.