On the sidelines of last week’s conference hosted by the Centre for African Resources, the coordinator of the Chiadzwa Community Development Trust, Melanie Chiponda, told The Zimbabwean communities in Chiadzwa were being side-lined by mining companies.
“They are not being given a fair chance to work on the diamond mines; employment of people working at the mines is taking place in Harare; guards are being employed from Harare and even unskilled workers,” said Chiponda.
She also complained that the establishment of the diamond polishing and cutting headquarters in Harare’s Mount Hampden was unfair.
“The HQ should be in Manicaland where the diamonds are mined. There is neither fairness nor logic in having it here,” Chiponda said. “The developments the mining firms feign to be making in Chiadzwa do not tally with what they are reaping from the diamond fields. The investors are taking everything – they take all the money to their countries and there is nothing left for the people in the area,” she added.
Pedzisai Ruhanya, the director of the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute, castigated the underdevelopment he said was rampant in the rich Eastern Highlands.
“Diamonds are being taken from Chiadzwa to develop Zvimba, to build a luxury capital city when people are living in abject poverty. How can a village take resources from another village to develop itself?” he asked. “The diamonds being mined in this country are also being used to develop South Africa; they are being used to benefit foreigners at the expense of locals,” Ruhanya added.
There have been increasing reports of brutal treatment of local workers on the mines by their Chinese counterparts, with allegations that local workers were not being given pay slips for their salaries until recently when they protested against the injustice.
Post published in: News