HARARE - Zimbabwe's black empowerment organisation, the Affirmative Action Group (AAG), has said it wants to mine diamonds in the Marange fields, in an attempt to prevent the resource benefiting only the elite. (Pictured: Some of the locals who were arrested
Indigenous businessman Paddington Japajapa, one of the leaders in the black empowerment group, told The Zimbabwean that it was time Zimbabweans repossessed the diamond fields.
“We want to venture into mining,” Japajapa said. “We want broad-based participation in that resource. The indigenous people of this country want a stake in the diamonds.” The diamonds from the hugely prolific Chiadzwa fields are regarded as the world’s biggest diamond find in more than a century, with a potential output of at least US$70 million a month.
MDC wants law scrapped
Japajapa said AAG had met with Indigenisation minister, Saviour Kasukuwere, who gazetted controversial empowerment regulations last week forcing foreign-owned companies to cede 51 per cent shareholding to indigenous Zimbabweans. The regulations have sent jitters across the market, and were unilaterally gazetted without consultation with the Prime Minister, who has ordered the minister to scrap the law by March 1. “The minister will assist us,” the AAG official said.
The radical AAG was formed by ostentatious businessman, Phillip Chiyangwa, in 1994 and its agitation brought indigenisation firmly on the national agenda. Unfortunately it has largely become a club of personalities jostling for their personal interests.
Japajapa said there was need to indigenise the mining sector in its entirety, especially the lucrative diamond fields which have heightened factional fights between two powerful competing factions in President Mugabe’s Zanu (PF).
ACRs right rejected
Controversy over the diamond fields has played out in Parliament, where a powerful mining committee is grilling all officials involved in the murky diamond transactions, right up to the mining minister and his deputy.
This week the government also announced that it had cancelled British firm, African Consolidated Resources (ACR)’s, right of title to the Marange diamond fields, confirmed by Zimbabwes High Court in a landmark September 2009 ruling.
Despite the ruling, Harare has engaged the two private firms to partner state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) in mining the claims. The government has said it will appeal against the High Court ruling while ACR has vowed to fight in the courts any attempt to strip the firm of its rights over the diamond claims.
Analysts say the nationalisation drive being pursued by President Mugabe is meant to whip up nationalist indignation and boost waning popularity ratings. But they warn the nationalisation drive could mothball investor interest, critical in resuscitating an economy that was emerging from a decade-long recession.
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