(STICKY) (MnG, SAPA, AP) Report accuses Zimbabwe of stealing diamond money
COMMENT - More rule by NGO, in this case Partnership Africa Canada. The same article roughly, here, but with a very different header: (NEWZIMBABWE) US$2bln gem plunder claim 'totally false'.Ok, so I've read this 'report'. I would say it is full of unnamed and anonymous sources, cheap shots at mines minister Obert Mpofu, including multiple farm ownership and attacks on the ZANU-PF. As to their sources, they aren't there, because PAC would " like to thank the many individuals in Europe, North America and especially in Southern Africa who have helped make the report possible. For obvious reasons they cannot be named, but their assistance is very much appreciated. "
And I'm sure their motives are pure and above board. Trust us. Would, I don't know, Andrew Cranswick be among their advisers?
"Most of the diamond revenue is lost through a lack of transparency in accounting for how many diamonds are mined, how much is earned from their sales, the underpricing of gems on world markets, smuggling and a "high level of collusion" by government officials."
So what are they basing the $2 billion estimate on? Their report is found here. - MrK
According to SourceWatch, PAC's Zimbabwean board member is Charles Mutasa. He is also a VP of the AU's Economic, Social and Cultural Council.
He is currently an Executive Director/Development Consultant at MWENGO, and formerly a Program Manager (Program Policy-Africa) at Christian Aid.
MWENGO is an NGO, whose stated objective is "to strengthen the capacities of NGOs in Eastern and Southern Africa and help them articulate and implement a development agenda rooted in African experience and analysis."
Although he is usually identified as 'an independent political analyst', he also wrote: [quote]...
written by Charles Mutasa, December 25, 2009
Given the fact that in an inclusive government all must be shared equally, one sees no reason for ZANU PF to continue holding 26 amba*sadorial posts with MDC T 4 and MDC M , 1. It only makes sense that any amba*sadorial openings go either to MDC T or MDC M. But given the level and size of political representation(by virtue of the last election), the posts in Sweden and SA must go to MDC T, or alternatively, one to each of the two MDC factions. ZANU PF should have (since the formation of the inclusive government )vacated at least 15 of these posts to allow equal sharing, but given the understanding of the other parties in the coalition, any post that fells vacant (either by death, elevation or demotion of the inc*mbent) must be used as an opportunity to cater for the MDC factions.Anthing outside this simply calls for a fresh and equal reallocation irregardless of the consequences to the current post holders.[/quote]
Which would clearly be a pro-MDC view, however reasonable sounding.
(MnG) Report accuses Zimbabwe of stealing diamond money
12 Nov 2012 15:14 - Gillian Gotora
About $2-billion worth of diamonds have been stolen from Zimbabwe's eastern diamond fields and have enriched President Robert Mugabe's ruling circle.
[What is the proof of this? It is easy to make unfounded claims against the ZANU-PF led government, because there is a global news network ready to echo those claims, and an unsophisticated audience ready to bob their heads - see comments to the article on the M&G website. However, what is the proof? - MrK]
The report condemns the Mugabe government's control of the Marange diamond fields which have made Zimbabwe a major player in the international diamond trade. (AP)
Zimbabwe's Marange fields have seen "the biggest plunder of diamonds since Cecil Rhodes," the colonial magnate who exploited South Africa's Kimberley diamonds a century ago, charged Partnership Africa Canada, a member of the Kimberley Process, the world regulatory body on the diamond trade.
[Sounds like hyperbole. Proof? - MrK]
Zimbabwe's eastern Marange field – one of the world's biggest diamond deposits – has been mined since 2006 and its vast earnings could have turned around Zimbabwe's economy, battered by years of meltdown and political turmoil, the group said.
[If they were honest, and they're not, they would state 'battered by years of economic sanctions - including on the sale of their diamonds, through the Anglo-American De Beers directed Kimberley Certification Process. - MrK]
But funds from the diamond sales have not showed up in the state treasury. Instead there is evidence that millions have gone to Mugabe's cronies.
[First of all, have they been sold at international market prices? Because economic sanctions mean just that - that traditional sales channels cannot be used. This is the same problem Iran faces when trying to sell it's oil. Free Trade is highly controlled - hence economic sanctions are possible. Also, the phrase 'Mugabe's cronies' is clearly tendentious and political. - MrK]
The report, released Monday to coincide with the Zimbabwe government's conference on the diamond trade here in Victoria Falls, casts a shadow over the Mugabe regime's effort to win international respectability for its gem trade.
The report condemns the Mugabe government's control of the Marange diamond fields which have made Zimbabwe a major player in the international diamond trade.
"Marange's potential has been overshadowed by violence, smuggling, corruption and most of all, lost opportunity," the PAC report said.
[And economic sanctions. Again, they are showing their dishonesty. - MrK]
"The scale of illegality is mind-blowing" and has spread to "compromise most of the diamond markets of the world," said the report.
[More hyperbole. Give us facts. Who benefited, how many carats have been sold, etc. With objective sources. - MrK]
The report describes the $2-billion lost to the Zimbabwe treasury as a "conservative estimate".
Finance Minister Tendai Biti said in his 2012 budget he had been promised $600-million in diamond revenue for the national treasury to help re-finance crumbling health, education and other public services.
[And paying 'back' the IMF. - MrK]
Biti said that only one-fourth of that pledge has been received.
Mines minister Obert Mpofu, a Mugabe loyalist,
[Characterisation. She means he is a member of the ZANU-PF rather than the MDC. - MrK]
insists Western economic sanctions have prevented the government from getting good prices for the diamonds on the international market.
[True. That's what economic sanctions and embargoes do. - MrK]
But Mpofu has repeatedly refused to give exact figures on diamond revenues, said the PAC report.
[Refused? Source? - MrK]
Inner circle
Mpofu, the mines minister since 2009, amassed an unexplained personal fortune and is linked to a "small and tight group of political and military elites who have been in charge of Marange from the very beginning" and who are personally benefiting from the diamond sales, the report alleged.
[What is their proof? Other than unsubstantiated allegations? - MrK]
In 2010 leading industry insiders, including Filip van Loere, a Belgian diamond expert working for the Mugabe government,
[Belgium has the world's biggest diamond trading center, in Antwerp. - MrK]
forecast the country could produce as much as 30-million to 40-million carats a year, worth about $2-billion annually, the PAC report said. The diamonds are being mined and sold but the funds are not reaching the Zimbabwean treasury, according to the report.
[Again, proof that 30 million to 40 million carats a year are being sold? - MrK]
Most of the diamond revenue is lost through a lack of transparency in accounting for how many diamonds are mined, how much is earned from their sales, the underpricing of gems on world markets, smuggling and a "high level of collusion" by government officials.
[So they admit that there is no proof. They don't know how many diamonds have been sold, at what price, and how many are smuggled out of the country and by whom. - MrK]
Records show that 10-million carats of Marange diamonds were exported to Dubai in late 2012 for $60-million, which the report said is an artificially low price because the same stones were sold for double their original price when they left Dubai for Surat, India – the world's biggest diamond cutting center. It says the gems should have been valued at $1.2-billion.
[And they dismiss this being an effect of sanctions? - MrK]
The low valuation lost the Zimbabwe nation considerable money and "underscores a price manipulation scheme perpetrated by Indian buyers and their Zimbabwe allies, with whom they are believed to share the spoils," the report said.
In addition, the report's researchers were unable to locate a 2.5-million carat stockpile, valued at around $200-million, which mysteriously disappeared in November 2011. It also charges that $300-million in diamond sales never made it to the Zimbabwe treasury in 2011.
All this has been allowed to happen under the watch of the Kimberley Process, which is supposed to prevent misuse of diamond funds.
"Calls for greater transparency have been dismissed within the Kimberley Process," it said.
"The lack of transparency surrounding Zimbabwe's diamond revenue is matter of critical public interest and amplifies concerns for some time that these revenues are funding a parallel government" of police and military officers and government officials loyal to Mugabe, many known to be building private mansions and buying luxury cars costing far in excess of their income from tax-funded salaries, said the report.
– Sapa-AP
*******
More about Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) - note that listed among their sources of income are 'Kimberley partners', in other words, members of the Kimberley Process. There has been a change of the guards at Anglo-American De Beers, first with the ousting of Nicky Oppenheimer, then with the firing of Cynthia Carroll. This new report could very well be a change in policy from Anglo.
http://www.pacweb.org/partners-e.php
Partners
PAC receives funding from a variety of governmental, institutional and non-governmental supporters, for which it is very grateful. Those that have supported PAC programmes during the last few years include:
- Irish Aid
- International Development Research Centre (Canada)
- Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada
- Canadian International Development Agency
- Revenue Watch Institute (USA)
- Cordaid (Netherlands)
- Canadian Autoworkers Social Justice Fund
- EGMONT, Royal Institute for International Relations (Belgium)
- FPS Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation (Belgium)
- Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (Switzerland)
- World Bank - CASM
- World Vision Canada
PAC collaborates with a variety of civil society organizations, governments and private sector bodies in Africa, Canada and internationally, including the following.
Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project (AfriMAP)
ASSAFE (Mali)
Black History Ottawa
Canadian Autoworkers Social Justice Fund
Canadian International Development Agency
Canadian Labour Congress
Centre du Commerce International pour le Développement (Guinea)
Centre National d'Appui au Développement et à la Participation Populaire (DR Congo)
Christian Relief and Development Association (Ethiopia)
Comité de Liaison des ONG du Congo (Republic of Congo)
COPAGEN - INADES-Formation (West Africa)
Cordaid (Netherlands)
Diamond Development Initiative - International
EGMONT, Royal Institute for International Relations (Belgium)
FPS Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation (Belgium)
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (Switzerland)
Fatal Transactions/NIZA (Netherlands)
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada
Global Witness (Great Britain)
Green Advocates (Liberia)
International Development Research Centre (Canada)
Irish Aid
Kimberley Process Participants
Madison Dialogue
Natural Resources Canada
Network Movement for Justice and Development (Sierra Leone)
Oxfam Canada
Peacebuild - the Canadian Peacebuilding Network
Publish What You Pay International
Revenue Watch Institute
South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA)
Transparency International
Transparency International Canada
Economic Commission for Africa (United Nations)
World Bank - CASM
World Vision Canada
Working Group on Canadian Science and Technology Policy (Canada)
http://www.herald.co.zw/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=57019:prove-that-diamonds-are-funding-army-mnangagwa&catid=37:top-stories&Itemid=130
Prove that diamonds are funding army: Mnangagwa
Monday, 12 November 2012 00:00
Tendai Mugabe Senior Reporter
Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa has challenged fellow Cabinet ministers to present evidence showing that proceeds from Chiadzwa diamond fields were used to fund army operations and parallel Government structures.
Some Cabinet Ministers, particularly from the MDC-T, have accused Zanu-PF and the military of abusing money from Chiadzwa diamonds. However, Minister Mnangagwa dismissed the claims in an interview with The Herald last Friday and challenged anyone with such evidence to bring it to the fore.
“If they have that evidence they should present it,” he said.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti has on several occasions alleged that little was being remitted from Chiadzwa, raising suspicion that the money was being channelled elsewhere.
He further claimed that the Zimbabwe National Army was recruiting officers illegally because treasury was facing liquidity challenges.
The recruitment made by the Zimbabwe National Army is covered by the Ministry of Defence.
However, Minister Mnangagwa said the recruitment of officers by the ZNA was guided by the Ministry’s budget.
“When we do our recruitment we look at our budget and not what the Minister of Finance says,” said Minister Mnangagwa.
He said the Zimbabwe Defence Forces were playing a vital role in maintaining peace and stability in the country.
“I would like to commend the ZDF for remaining vigilant and patriotic as some elements are working tirelessly to reverse the gains of our hard won independence.
“The defence of our independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity remains an aspect that is not negotiable,” he said.
State Enterprises Minister Godern Moyo also claimed that Zanu-PF was running a parallel Government using money from Chiadzwa. At most of its rallies MDC-T leadership claimed that the military was controlling money from Chiadzwa.
They alleged that there was no transparency in the manner in which money from Chiadzwa was being administered.
Zimbabwe has not benefited much from its gemstones as a result of illegal sanctions imposed by the West.
Mines and Mining Development Minister Obert Mpofu said the US Office of Foreign Assets Control had intercepted Zimbabwe’s diamond money on several occasions.
This had resulted in Government reviewing downwards this year’s projected revenue from Chiadzwa diamond fields.
http://www.herald.co.zw/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=57031:mpofus-headway-makes-mdc-t-jittery&catid=37:top-stories&Itemid=130
DIAMONDS, OBERT MPOFU, MDC,
Mpofu’s headway makes MDC-T jittery
Monday, 12 November 2012 00:00
Herald Reporter
MDC-T acknowledges that it has been hit hard by defections in Matabeleland North where Zanu-PF secretary for Economic Affairs Cde Obert Mpofu has made headway in luring its supporters to the revolutionary party. In recent weeks, Cde Mpofu has been addressing bumper crowds in the province as factionalism threatens to tear MDC-T apart.
A number of MDC-T supporters and some members of the provincial executive have been suspended for attending Cde Mpofu’s meetings. Last week, MDC-T vice president Thokozani Khupe — who hails from Bubi, Matabeleland North — confirmed the party’s fears of Cde Mpofu’s manoeuvres.
“I am not abandoning Makokoba. I come from Bubi and I cannot just sit and watch while Mpofu is making inroads in our stronghold,’’ she told journalists.
A statement by MDC-T’s information department headed by party spokesperson Mr Douglas Mwonzora also confirmed that most of the party’s supporters were now attending Cde Mpofu’s rallies.
The party, however, tried to console itself by claiming its supporters were attending the meetings for “food and beer”.
MDC-T said its supporters had “adopted a strategy of survival where they attend his (Cde Mpofu) rallies for food and beer.
“The MDC is determined that Matabeleland people cannot be bought through a meal and beer at a rally at the expense of critical developmental projects that have been spearheaded ever since the party went into the inclusive Government,” said the party.
Infighting has widened fissures in MDC-T structures in the province after an investigation team recommended the suspension of all Victoria Falls councillors.
This comes barely two weeks after the suspension of provincial organising secretary Mr Thembinkosi Sibindi and the provincial secretary Ms Angeline Kheswa.
The councillors are facing accusations of corruption, supporting Zanu-PF policies and flirting with Zanu-PF leaders.
MDC-T has also been hit by factionalism in Bulawayo with rival factions aligned to provincial chairperson Mr Gorden Moyo and Mzilikazi Senator Matson Hlalo fighting running battles since Mr Moyo’s election last year.
A number of party supporters have defected to the Professor Welshman Ncube-led MDC formation in Bulawayo as a result of the infighting.
However, Mr Mwonzora tried to downplay the defections saying they were stage-managed.
“When politicians give food or any incentives to the people in return of support, it’s vote-buying. Our people are not defecting but there is attempted vote-buying. Most of the time those defections are stage-managed,” said Mr Mwonzora.
*******************
More from the report itself:
" Mpofu’s wealth is symbolic of the larger mismanagement of Zimbabwe’s natural resources87. Certainly, he has become very rich since becoming the Minister of Mines, making him a figurehead for the illegality occurring in Marange, but this story is about more than Obert Mpofu alone. Ultimately it is about the greed and corruption that lies at the heart of ZANU as a political institution. "
And not the MDC? The name Andrew Cranswick appears nowhere in the report either, and he is wanted in Zimbabwe for multiple claim ownership under several shell companies, as well as for tax evasion in Australia.
But apparently corruption is a ZANU-PF thing, according to Partnership Africa Canada.
This is their opinion on idigenisation:
" Beneficiation is allegedly at the heart of a ZANU attempts to “indigenize” the Zimbabwean economy by making all companies 51% “Black” owned. Led by Saviour Kasukuwere, the minister of youth development, indigenization and empowerment, the effort has been roundly criticized inside and outside Zimbabwe as another cash grab by ZANU. "
" In a similar vein, efforts to establish “community development trusts” in Marange have been dismissed as a Trojan Horse created by ZANU to deflect and counter legitimate criticism about mining operations. "
Dismissed by whom? And carrying what authority?
Partnership Africa Canada may be a legit organisation, but their reliance on clear anti-ZANU-PF sources - and their apparent lack of criticims of anyone in the MDC, who are after all also in government - combined with the lack of credible sources cited, would suggest to me that the informational value of this report is close to ZERO.
Add to this the timing of the release, before a major conference, and the reception it has gotten in the press (see the Mail & Guardian), sounds like a stitch up to me.
" But since its discovery in 2006, Marange’s potential has been overshadowed by violence, smuggling, corruption, and most of all, lost opportunity. "
The writers forget economic sanctions, including repeated attempts by the US government to use the Kimberley Certification Process to block the export of diamonds from Zimbabwe.
" But on his watch, the world has seen perhaps the biggest single plunder of diamonds since Cecil Rhodes. Conservative estimates place the theft of Marange goods at almost $2 billion since 2008. "
Perhaps? All this brooha, and they can't nail down their data, the source of their data with any kind of certainty?
" The scale of illegality is mind blowing. One confidential
Uh-oh...
" geologist report cited by the August 2010 Kimberley Process Review Mission to Zimbabwe claimed “in excess of 10,000,000 carats have been removed by artisanal effort over the last three years”—an amount worth almost $600,000,000 at today’s depressed prices. The Review Mission also estimated illegal mining at 60,000 carats a month, ranking the illicit Marange trade at between 7th and 10th in overall world diamond production4. "
And on it goes. No sources, no explanation of how they arrived at their estimates.
Labels: CORRUPTION, DIAMONDS, NGOs, OBERT MPOFU
posted by MrK @ 4:33 AM
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