National environmental watchdog, Environmental Management Agency (EMA), last week dragged the now defunct DMC to court for the role it played in the pollution of the two rivers.
The firm appeared before Mutare magistrate, Langton Mukwengi, facing charges of contravening the Environmental Management Act Chapter 20:27 Section 5 Subsection 1.
Deputy Managing Director, Paul Kutsira, represented the diamond firm.
EMA was demanding $5, 000 fine but magistrate Mukwengi made a downward variation to $1, 000, ordering DMC to pay without fail.
According to prosecutors, on September 16, 2015, three EMA officials and two police officers visited DMC’s Chiadzwa mine on a monitoring mission.
They took samples from their slime discharge points as well as from the rivers.
The samples were then sent to an EMA laboratory in Harare while the company also took their samples to a private laboratory and the results were produced before the court as evidence.
Meanwhile, Mines minister, Walter Chidhakwa, said Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) will soon take over DMC operations as part of
the consolidation process.
He said DMC, Jinan and Kusena did not take the government to court after the takeover.
Post published in: Business