The MDC-T President made the revelations while addressing about 6, 000 party supporters at the Globe and Phoenix grounds in this small mining town endowed with vast gold deposits at the weekend.
“We asked Mpofu and said, Do you agree that $2 billion is what was collected from diamond mining activities in Marange since 2009 and he said ‘Yes’. We then asked him to prove how the money was used and up to now he is still stammering in Cabinet over the issue,” said Tsvangirai.
The Prime Minister seemed to be in a no-nonsense mood in the midst of a huge audience that involved a sizeable population of artisanal miners.
“It is disheartening to note that Mpofu, instead of allowing the nation to shake off its poverty using the diamond proceeds, he has enriched himself and become the godfather of Matabeleland.
“Since the start of the inclusive government, he has bought a hotel and become one of the few Africans to instantly buy a bank at a cost translating into millions of dollars. If you go to Bulawayo, the second largest city in the country, half of its central business district now belongs to Mpofu.
“As MDC-T we are saying that model of gross corruption is what we want to change so that the system of Government in this country becomes transparent and known for a culture of accountability to the people, who are ultimate owners of every resource found in the country,” said PM Tsvangirai.
Minister Mpofu and his Zanu (PF) Indigenisation counterpart Saviour Kasukuwere, have lately been hostile to critics of the corruption happening at the Marange diamond fields. Parliamentary portfolio committee Chairperson for Mines, Edward Chindori Chininga, who produced a dossier chronicling the looting of the gems by top Zanu (PF) officials, died under mysterious circumstances last month in an incident understood to have resulted from assassination.
Post published in: News