Diamonds missing after police ‘rob’ Central Bank

By Alex Bell
08 February 2010

Almost 30kgs of diamonds from the controversial Chiadzwa diamond claim have reportedly disappeared after being removed from the Reserve Bank by police last week.

The contested diamonds, which form part of the ongoing ownership wrangle of the Chiadzwa claim, had been moved to the central bank under Supreme Court orders. It’s understood that Mines Minister Obert Mpofu on Thursday tried to stop the diamonds being transported to the central bank, by producing a letter from the registrar of the Supreme Court, Nomonde Mazabane. The letter detailed that the court order to move the diamonds did not necessarily include all the diamonds mined from the Chiadzwa claim, and that the order had been reversed. But Harare’s deputy sheriff, tasked with enforcing the orders of the court, refused to accept the terms of the letter and the diamond transfer continued.

According to the South African Press Agency (SAPA), the gems were finally transferred in three strong boxes and under a heavy police guard to the Central Bank. But while the stones were being registered, a senior police official overseeing the process halted procedures and removed the gems. He reportedly said “there have been new developments,” and that the registrar’s letter was ‘true’. The whereabouts of the diamonds are still unknown.

The missing diamonds are part of a much larger collection that was mined by the UK based mining firm Africa Consolidated Resources (ACR) as well as those mined illegally by the state authorised Mbada mining group. ACR which holds the legal title to the diamond claim in Chiadzwa was evicted at gunpoint from the claim in 2006; a move that a High Court judge last year ruled was illegal. The government has appealed this ruling, and the transferral of the diamonds to the central bank was ordered as a temporary measure until the ownership wrangle was completed.

“We don’t know where they (the diamonds) are,” ACR’s lawyer, Jonathan Samkange told SAPA. “The police robbed the central bank.”

He said the letter from Supreme Court registrar was ‘illegal’ because court officials cannot give rulings on behalf of judges. He added that “an order by the Supreme Court is final and cannot be appealed.” Journalist Jan Raath explained to SW Radio Africa that the letter is suspected to have been a result of ‘bullying’ from Minister Mpofu. He said such a letter is a ‘travesty of justice’ and unheard of in legal circles, arguing that foul play is definitely suspected.

The Mines Ministry under Minister Mpofu is supposed to be cleaning up its act, after it escaped a ban from international diamond trade over human rights abuses at the Chiadzwa fields. The international trade monitor, the Kimberley Process, has given Zimbabwe until June to fall in line with international trade standards. But these standards are still being flouted.

For example, monitors from the Kimberley Process are meant to be in place to oversee any export of diamonds. But an official from the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ) made the shock admittance in parliament last week that diamonds were being airlifted from Chiadzwa to Harare without police or Kimberley Process supervision. Masimba Chandavengerwa, the MMCZ’s acting head of marketing told a parliamentary committee on mines and energy: “At the moment, the airlifting is being done without our knowledge.”

The diamonds meanwhile are also speculated to be at the centre of yet another wrangle, this time between the warring ZANU PF factions of Joyce Mujuru and Emmerson Mnangagwa. Just days before the diamonds were transported to the central bank, ACR’s offices were raided by armed men said to be in the employ of Mujuru’s husband, Solomon. According to the Zimbabwe Mail which last week quoted an intelligence source, the Mujuru camp was ‘furious’ over the plans, backed by the Mnangagwa camp, to transfer the diamonds to the RBZ.

“They fear their rivals are planning to enrich themselves and eventually dislodge them from the succession contest using the proceeds,” the Zimbabwe mail reported.