Meet ZCDC CEO Mark Mabhudhu
From B1
He recruited, trained and developed plant personnel across the plant operations and rose through the ranks to plant superintendent level.
Mabhudhu then joined Debswana Diamond Mining Company — Jwaneng Mine in 1999 to April 2009, where he built, commissioned and optimised the state-ofthe-art diamond processing and recovery plant.
He performed optimisation and process development work, in line with the diamond value-chain from mining, processing, recovery, automated sorting, cleaning, packaging, dispatch and the security systems around diamonds handling.
While at Jwaneng Mine, he obtained full understanding of the entire value-chain into diamond valuation, as well as the cutting and polishing industry.
He rose through the ranks from mineral process engineer through to the technical process manager and finally strategy executive of the organisation.
Mabhudhu was appointed the inaugural CEO of PAASOL Resources Zimbabwe (Pty) Ltd in August 20092010 and ratified by the board of directors to provide leadership and direction of this start-up organisation. He entered into joint venture arrangements with other key players in the mining industry, as well as undertook consultancy work for other mining and business organisations.
Apart from soliciting for project finance via foreign investors from the United States, UK, China and India, he ensured corporate governance of the organisation and executed the vision and mission of PAASOL Resources Zimbabwe (Pty) Ltd. In 2010, he moved to Marange Resources (Pvt) Ltd., where he rose through the ranks to become Acting CEO between 2014–2015.
ere, he devised new diamond marketing and selling approaches which resulted in the organisation, achieving best prices on both local and international selling tenders. For the first time in four years, the organisation made profit at all levels during the first quarter of 2015 and broke even during the second quarter.
Mabhudhu was then appointed acting chief executive officer of ZCDC in 2016, a wholly-owned government diamond mining company, which came about through the expiration of the previous miners’ special grants, forming a consolidated business entity, with the concessions being placed under one roof.
In 2018, he joined Vast Resources PLC — Diamond Business as a consultant/executive director in charge of directing and leading in the firm’s aspirations of becoming a prominent mining house in the country, as well as internationally, with particular focus on diamonds and setting up the Zimbabwe mining operations.
In September 2020, Mabhudhu rejoined ZCDC as the substantive CEO, with the sole responsibility of repositioning the diamond company into a profit-making entity, in line with shareholder and stakeholder expectations.
He obtained a BSc (Hons) Engineering: Metallurgical from the University of Zimbabwe in 1992 and was awarded a book prize (top student), Post-graduate Diploma in Management Studies from the Buckinghamshire Chilten’s University College in UK (2000) and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) at the same University in 2001, where he was also awarded book prize. He has a Master of Philosophy in Information and Knowledge Management (MIKM) from the University of Stellenbosch (South Africa, 2008) and is currently undertaking a Doctoral study in Business Administration (DBA) with the University of Pretoria’s Gibs Business School ( esis final stage).