The Sunday Mail
Livingstone Marufu
THE Kimberley Process Certification Scheme has lauded Zimbabwe for consolidating diamond mining in Chiadzwa, and several foreign delegations are expected to come for familiarisation tours of the fields.
KPCS chair the United Arab Emirates and the Central African Republic are among countries expected to soon dispatch delegations to Zimbabwe after the country made a convincing presentation at the Kimberly Process meeting in Dubai last week.
Mines and Mining Development Minister Walter Chidhakwa said Zimbabwe was not on the KPCS agenda at the Dubai meeting. Instead, the country received a thumbs-up from the several world diamond boards for consolidating mining activities in Chiadzwa.
“I feel very happy that our views were seriously taken at the KPCS meeting in Dubai last week as we fully justified the amalgamation plan of a Consolidated Diamond Company at Chiadzwa. We were never on the agenda in Dubai as previously reported by some sections of the media instead we were invited to brief the world diamond committee about the latest developments that had occurred in Chiadzwa and they were happy about it.
“They went on to say that with the new developments, Zimbabwe’s diamond sector is set for growth and development. His Excellency Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy of the UAE, is scheduled to visit the country to express gratitude for Zimbabwe’s backing of the Arab nation’s chairmanship bid and to see how far the country has gone in implementing the consolidation programme.
“And also in the next week or so, Central African Republic delegates are coming to see what we have done in so far as far as the consolidation process is concerned.
“In a nutshell, the KPCS meeting was a resounding success for us and we will implement various programmes that were introduced at the just ended meeting,” said Minister Chidhakwa.
He added: “There were no protests at (the meeting venue); actually some civil society groups from Canada did not attend the meeting in protest of the decision of not handing over the chairmanship to Australia.”
Government this year ordered diamond mining companies to cease operations due to lack of transparency.
Following concerns over possible revenue leakages, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr John Mangudya pledged far reaching reforms to the IMF.
Minister Chidhakwa added, “We will proceed with vigour to make sure we move forward with our plans for the betterment of the sector.”
Australia will host the Kimberly Process Intersessional meeting in 2017 and will assume chairmanship then.
