We don’t eat world rankings

However, the KP findings are meaningless to the majority of the people because we have nothing to celebrate. The report, covering 2011, shows a marginal increase in Zimbabwe’s diamond production from that of 2010.

Naturally, there are people who would like to give the KP survey a rosy spin. Obert Mpofu, the Mines Minister, is one such person. He sees our ranking as a very good reason for all Zimbabweans to smile.

Says Mpofu: “We have already shaken the world market both in terms of production and demand. Our gems are a force to reckon with.”

Granted, our diamonds might be such, but in whose eyes? Surely, Mpofu will not have this nation, which boasts one of the highest literacy rates on the continent, believe that his statement that local diamonds have taken the world by storm will put a smile on our faces.

Diamonds can only have a meaningful sparkle if they benefit the citizens of the country where they are produced. That, of course, is not the case where we are concerned.

Since 2009 when the Government of National Unity was formed, Tendai Biti, the Finance Minister, has been complaining that Treasury is not enjoying meaningful inflows from the Marange diamond mines. There is nothing to show that the diamond mines are producing enough to warrant such a high place on the world rankings.

We would have expected that, given such an elite ranking, much more money should be finding its way to the Finance ministry. If we are producing so much, where is the money going? Are the diamond mines selling without remitting tax to the government as the law demands? If so, why are they being let off the hook?

These questions, of course, are more on the rhetorical side, for we know where the money is going. A report by Global Witness gives chilling accounts of how revenue from the diamonds is being channelled to fund the Central Intelligence Organisation operations.

These operations, disturbingly, have nothing to do with national security, but are motivated by the desire and intent to keep President Robert Mugabe and Zanu (PF) in power, regardless of democratic calls for political change.

There is no transparency in the manner in which the gems are being disposed of, a clear reflection on how the minerals that are supposed to benefit the economy have been turned into a political pawn.