The Sunday Mail
Itai Mazire and Kuda Bwititi – Sunday Mail Reporters
A group of 12 white commercial farmers on Friday approached the European Court in Belgium to attach US$45 million worth of diamonds from Zimbabwe that were on auction, soon after authorities had reversed an order awarded to South Africa’s Amari Platinum to seize the same stones.
The bid to attach the diamonds for the second time in a week has raised questions on the sincerity of Belgian officials who have been courting Zimbabwe to participate at the Antwerp auctions.
It also puts at risk any international transactions involding Government.
The white Dutch farmers asked the European Court to seize the diamonds soon after an order allowing Amari Platinum to seize them over a Zimbabwe Government debt had been reversed.
A Zimbabwean legal team had successfully argued that the mining companies selling the diamonds were not liable for Government’s debt.
The group of Dutch farmers have been waging a battle to get Government to pay them US$54 million awarded in 2009 by the United States-based International Centre for Settlement of Investment
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Disputes for alleged breach of a Bilateral Investment Treaty when their farms were compulsorily acquired for redistribution under the Fast-Track Land Reform Programme.
Last night, a lawyer who is part of the legal team in Antwerp said: “A group of white farmers have brought an application before the courts with an intention to attach diamonds that we had successfully won back from Amari.
“The group states that they were illegally evicted from their farms by authority of the then Minister of Lands and Rural Resettlement Minister Didymus Mutasa. In their papers the white farmers are suing the Zimbabwe Government for the cost of lost business.”
The lawyer said the twist could result in a protracted legal battle over the roughly 500 000 carats of diamonds.
Antwerp World Diamond Centre spokesperson Margaux Donckier told The Sunday Mail they could not comment as the diamonds were part of a privately-held auction.
“Due to the fact that AWDC wasn’t involved in the diamond auction that was organised in the building of AWDC, I cannot help you. The tender facility, where the auction is organised, is a secured location that can be rented by private companies to organise diamond auctions. AWDC is not actively involved and is therefore not in the position to comment on this matter.”
Diamond Mining Company chief executive officer Mr Ramzi Malik, whose company was part of the auction, yesterday said he was aware that while lawyers had stopped Amari from grabbing the diamonds, they now had to contend with the Dutch farmers’ onslaught.
“There is a lot of work and court sessions ahead. We are working to get our diamonds back. I think from this whole saga, what we have learnt is that we should sell our diamonds at home and not come to these markets. We have had problems in Dubai; now we have experienced even worse problems. I hope the Mines Minister will now do the right thing to let us conduct our sale at home,” he said.
Last night, Mines and Mining Development Minister Walter Chidhakwa said he had not yet been fully briefed on the developments.
An official with a diamond mining firm at the auction blamed Belgian authorities for the fiasco.
“The reality is that it is a disaster. We are now wondering why we even came here.”
Zimbabwe started selling diamonds in Antwerp in December 2013 year after Belgium government officials committed to dealing fairly with the country despite being a member of the European Union that imposed sanctions on Harare.
But on September 12, 2014 Belgian authorities seized Zimbabwean diamonds awaiting auction in Antwerp following a court order giving Amari Platinum the right to be compensated for a platinum concession it lost during Dr Obert Mpofu’s tenure as Mines and Mining Development Minister.
