Zimbabwe’s diamond heist is a warning to keep the state at bay
The enormous squandered potential of Zimbabwe’s Marange diamond fields, which Global Witness says is providing covert funding for the Central Intelligence Organisation and the military, serves as a lesson for SA about state involvement in minerals.
The 2006 discovery of the vast Marange fields to the east of Bulawayo has since turned into the proverbial resources curse for the country under the iron grip of President Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zanu-PF since independence in 1980.
Marange diamonds have long been contentious and give rise to questions around the effectiveness of the Kimberley Process, which was designed to prevent diamonds from conflict zones being used to perpetuate war and violence.
Monday’s Global Witness report flagged the loopholes in the Kimberley Process through which the Zimbabwean government and its intelligence and military branches are securing funding, sometimes flying in the face of sanctions against some of those branches.
Diamonds could almost be seen as the equivalent of oil for the Zimbabwean government, which has cloaked the industry in a virtually impenetrable veil of secrecy that allows it to act completely within its own interests and those of its shadowy partners with absolutely zero accountability to the people of that country.
Given the worrying reports in SA of the state’s intelligence apparatus used to discredit rivals of President Jacob Zuma and those eyeball-deep in corruption, the warning signs are flashing.
The deployment of Mosebenzi Zwane, a political lackey and individual tainted by the whiff of corruption, as minister of the Department of Mineral Resources and his recruitment of inexperienced people into important positions is another warning sign.
With the state moving ahead with the African Exploration and Mining Finance Corporation, a state-owned company it sees as a vehicle for all its mineral interests, this would be something to watch.
With the ANC’s vision of itself as having practically the sole right to run the country, often blurring the lines between party and state, coupled with its staggering levels of corruption, it is not difficult to draw parallels with Zimbabwe.
The dangers of the state becoming overly involved in the extraction of its country’s resources sector, particularly as a player rather than as a regulator, were laid bare in the Global Witness report entitled Zimbabwe: The State, the Security Forces, and a Decade of Disappearing Diamonds.
“A decade of disappearing diamond wealth, aided by a culture of impunity and secrecy, has shaped an industry captured by vested economic interest, rivalries and mistrust. These are now playing out more publicly than ever, as rival interests compete for what can still be salvaged from the wreckage of a find that once offered such promise,” the report said.
Global Witness said it had uncovered new evidence that revealed how “Zimbabwe’s feared Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), the military, notorious smugglers and wellheeled political elites all gained control or ownership of companies operating in Zimbabwe’s diamond fields”.
“Security-sector involvement in Zimbabwe’s diamond sector does not just represent a financial loss to Zimbabwe’s population and economy,” the report said.
“Elements within both the CIO and military have been heavily implicated in stifling political opposition and scores of serious human rights violations,” it continued.
“A private, off-the-books source of income from diamonds allows these highly partisan and oppressive institutions to operate beyond the effective oversight of Zimbabwe’s Parliament.”