The Sunday Mail
Does anyone know there was the Zimbabwe Diamonds Conference on Thursday and Friday in Harare?
So what, some may ask?
Well, the starting point is that at the moment, the country is being run on money mainly harnessed from diamonds .
The conference, which was held under the theme “Completing Zimbabwe’s Diamond Potential”, attracted the who’s who of the world diamond industry.
The list of big players from the world diamond industry is endless and all these movers and shakers were in Harare for the conference.
What an opportunity the country had to learn some lessons on the much-talked about beneficiation and the broader diamond game?
But all this was pushed to the periphery.
The so-called Fourth Estate, the supposed “Mirror of Society”, betrayed the people of Zimbabwe in ways that exposed jumbled priorities.
After the official opening of this important conference on Thursday, the newspapers on Friday showed that they were really not mirrors.
“Leave us out of your fights,” screamed NewsDay. This was a story about the sacked Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association national executive and its involvement in Zanu-PF’s factional fights. The only story about the conference was thrown on Page 11.
“Mujuru war escalates” was the lead story in Southern Eye. The paper completely ignored the conference.
“Mugabe fears war veterans” screamed Daily News. The paper did have three stories and a comment on the conference.
“Magaya speaks out on Zanu-PF fights” was the lead story in The Zimbabwe Mail. The paper completely ignored the conference.
“Mnangagwa moves to be party unifier” was the lead story in Zimbabwe Independent. The paper, too, completely ignored the conference. “Zanu-PF heads for split,” was what the supposed business newspaper, The Financial Gazette, led with on Thursday.
Only The Herald last Friday led with the story on the diamond conference headlined “President dares diamond industry”.
Now before fellow colleagues start throwing stones, we need to make it clear that this is not a lecture on what stories to give priority to and we are fully aware of the fact that “what sells is the big story”, but surely as professionals who claim to be the mirror of society, we should have done better.
Besides the naked truth that Zimbabwe is being oiled with diamond money, why did we kill the diamond story presented by the conference when currently we all know that the country is in a fix after its diamonds awaiting auction at Antwerp were seized by some Belgian authorities following a court order giving a South African mining company the right to be compensated for a lost concession? So it’s not important that diamond mines who sent their products to Antwerp can’t pay their workers salaries in time because of the mafia-like developments in Belgium?
Mbada Diamonds chairman, Dr Robert Mhlanga made a passionate plea at the conference saying “what happened in Antwerp is synonymous with high seas piracy”. What else should this significant player in the country’s diamond industry say to show the magnitude of the problem? Dr Mhlanga went on to call for the “de-politicisation of the global diamond industry” if Zimbabwe is to realise its vision and full potential.
And now here this – the conference was held just a few days before the Kimberley Process meeting scheduled in China and the conference presented Zimbabwe with the opportunity to tap into the knowledge of the delegates from all over the world so as to come up with a proper strategy on how to fight its battles at the KP meeting. Unfortunately and sadly this opportunity again went begging.
In his closing remarks, Mines and Mining Development Minister Walter Chidakwa, subtly hinted at his disappointment when he said in Africa we have a weakness of “not defending our ideas with budgets”.
Surely, Zimbabwe should have done better in taking advantage of the diamond conference.
The media should have played their part because all the sources in this rather secretive industry were under one roof.
EDITORIAL COMMENT: Zimbabwe Diamonds Conference: A lost opportunity as we chased the wind
The Sunday Mail
Does anyone know there was the Zimbabwe Diamonds Conference on Thursday and Friday in Harare?
So what, some may ask?
Well, the starting point is that at the moment, the country is being run on money mainly harnessed from diamonds .
The conference, which was held under the theme “Completing Zimbabwe’s Diamond Potential”, attracted the who’s who of the world diamond industry.
The list of big players from the world diamond industry is endless and all these movers and shakers were in Harare for the conference.
What an opportunity the country had to learn some lessons on the much-talked about beneficiation and the broader diamond game?
But all this was pushed to the periphery.
The so-called Fourth Estate, the supposed “Mirror of Society”, betrayed the people of Zimbabwe in ways that exposed jumbled priorities.
After the official opening of this important conference on Thursday, the newspapers on Friday showed that they were really not mirrors.
“Leave us out of your fights,” screamed NewsDay. This was a story about the sacked Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association national executive and its involvement in Zanu-PF’s factional fights. The only story about the conference was thrown on Page 11.
“Mujuru war escalates” was the lead story in Southern Eye. The paper completely ignored the conference.
“Mugabe fears war veterans” screamed Daily News. The paper did have three stories and a comment on the conference.
“Magaya speaks out on Zanu-PF fights” was the lead story in The Zimbabwe Mail. The paper completely ignored the conference.
“Mnangagwa moves to be party unifier” was the lead story in Zimbabwe Independent. The paper, too, completely ignored the conference. “Zanu-PF heads for split,” was what the supposed business newspaper, The Financial Gazette, led with on Thursday.
Only The Herald last Friday led with the story on the diamond conference headlined “President dares diamond industry”.
Now before fellow colleagues start throwing stones, we need to make it clear that this is not a lecture on what stories to give priority to and we are fully aware of the fact that “what sells is the big story”, but surely as professionals who claim to be the mirror of society, we should have done better.
Besides the naked truth that Zimbabwe is being oiled with diamond money, why did we kill the diamond story presented by the conference when currently we all know that the country is in a fix after its diamonds awaiting auction at Antwerp were seized by some Belgian authorities following a court order giving a South African mining company the right to be compensated for a lost concession? So it’s not important that diamond mines who sent their products to Antwerp can’t pay their workers salaries in time because of the mafia-like developments in Belgium?
Mbada Diamonds chairman, Dr Robert Mhlanga made a passionate plea at the conference saying “what happened in Antwerp is synonymous with high seas piracy”. What else should this significant player in the country’s diamond industry say to show the magnitude of the problem? Dr Mhlanga went on to call for the “de-politicisation of the global diamond industry” if Zimbabwe is to realise its vision and full potential.
And now here this – the conference was held just a few days before the Kimberley Process meeting scheduled in China and the conference presented Zimbabwe with the opportunity to tap into the knowledge of the delegates from all over the world so as to come up with a proper strategy on how to fight its battles at the KP meeting. Unfortunately and sadly this opportunity again went begging.
In his closing remarks, Mines and Mining Development Minister Walter Chidakwa, subtly hinted at his disappointment when he said in Africa we have a weakness of “not defending our ideas with budgets”.
Surely, Zimbabwe should have done better in taking advantage of the diamond conference.
The media should have played their part because all the sources in this rather secretive industry were under one roof.
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