The ManicaPost
Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
OLD age think-tanks once wrote that looters don’t read, and readers don’t loot, but the unabated and alarming rate of mineral leakages, especially diamonds, lithium and gold, across the country and Manicaland in particular, is just too difficult to ignore.
Ideally, mineral leakages are predominantly in the gold sub-sector and other precious and semi-precious stones like diamonds through smuggling and diversion to the informal market.
Experts estimate that the country could be losing billions of United States of America dollars annually through leakages.
In the gold and lithium sub-sectors, of late, there have been reports of smuggling of minerals to countries such as South Africa, Dubai and China.
Diamonds, for example, after being stolen from companies operating in the nearby Marange area, find a ready market in several buyers of foreign origin resident in some of Mutare’s leafy suburbs.
A check by The Manica Post revealed that several foreign nationals, some with tertiary student status permits to justify their presence in the country, have set base in suburbs like Murambi, Morningside, Greenside and Fairbridge Park.
Gold buyers have also thronged Penhalonga area near Mutare where the mineral is sold in piecemeal to Fidelity Printers — the formal trend — but a considerable amount is reportedly being smuggled out of the country.
In addition, it has also been reported that semi-precious stones discovered in some parts of the country like Hurungwe and Karoi in Mashonaland West Province where villagers extracted the stones without going through the normal processes that ensure Zimbabwe benefits as a nation, are allegedly smuggling the minerals. In an interview on the sidelines of the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Mining Development two-day workshop in Vumba last week, chairman of the Portfolio Committee, Honourable Joseph Msipa said they are seized with the matter of minerals leakage.
“We are indeed concerned about the leakage of minerals as a committee. This is the reason why we will soon be calling for an indaba where we will bring together relevant stakeholders so that we map the way forward as a team. We are putting forward our suggestion as a committee to see the improvement of security on minerals in the country, and we hope we will achieve what we aspire to,” said the Shurugwi North parliamentarian.
In a separate interview, speaking from a mining employees representative view, tough talking Zimbabwe Federation of Trade Union (ZFTU) secretary general, Cde Kennias Shamuyarira, said: “We have a well-orchestrated mafia extractive syndicate, right from some unscrupulous Government officials, colluding with the so-called investors at the expense of the working class and the majority citizenry.
“Real economic development in a country can only be realised when we have radical policies on beneficiation and value addition to all our minerals and other natural resources.”
After extraction, gemstones such as amethyst, aquamarine, and garnet are illegally sold to unscrupulous dealers who smuggle and export the semi-precious and coloured stones in their raw form.
Cde Shamuyarira added: “I think we need to be very frank and candid to each other as a country and as a people. The whole issue starts from the investor, who comes into our space here in Zimbabwe, coming to invest in diamond, platinum or gold mining.
“All the other countries that developed or are on the development path, they (investors) go there fully aware that they will put something and get something out of their initiative, and the people in the country they will be investing in, will also get something.
“But our situation is so absurd. It is very skewed in the sense that you take a company like the now defunct Mbada Diamonds, they came with their machinery and expertise and all that we benefitted was employment of general hand workers.
“Over and above that, there was no beneficiation. You cannot talk of beneficiation by a company of that magnitude when they built houses for displaced villagers. That was a prerequisite just like protective clothing for employees.”
Cde Shamuyarira said beneficiation should be noticed from the production of the end products, and not export of raw minerals as a way of also addressing rampant leakages of mineral.
“The diamond was mined and is being mined, but there is no beneficiation. We should be having a polishing site where we employ people. After polishing diamonds, we must have the end product of rings, bracelets and so on.
“That is what we call beneficiation, and once we have that we can curb leakages.
“These diamonds are taken raw as they are to other people who know how to beneficiate our resources. This is why our theme for Workers Day this year touches on confronting extractive and parasitic investment.
“These are the kinds of investments we are talking about whereby the country itself does not benefit and the employees do not benefit at all. You look at the salaries that people are being paid in these mines, it’s a pittance, save for the few middle management that serve the interest of the shareholders.
“The rest are being paid amounts under the Poverty Datum Line and are wallowing in abject poverty, without any healthcare and education benefits. Overal, we do not see us as a country benefiting anything from these investments, simply because we do not have the end product being produced here,” he said.
The gathering in Vumba was meant to establish a strong foundation for collaboration between MMCZ and the Parliamentary Committee, while equipping participants with a comprehensive understanding of the MMCZ’s mandate, strategic direction, and current operations.
MMCZ was established to monitor and promote the export of all minerals produced in Zimbabwe with the exception of gold and silver which are dealt with by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe has 60 different mineral products, half of them currently being exported, but the country has been losing revenue from these minerals export owing to leakages at porous ports of exit such as Forbes Border Post in Mutare.
While MMCZ has been monitoring movement of minerals from production site, with their inspectors operating within mineral producing sites, and partially through the export process, they have not been allowed to be stationed at the country’s ports of exit under the excuse that their presence would militate against ease of doing business.
In their contribution during the MMCZ Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Mining Development workshop, a number of Members of Parliament emphasized the need to have MMCZ presence felt.
Mutare North Member of the House of Assembly Cde Admire Mahachi said.
“There is need to have MMCZ present at the place where minerals are getting outside the country. This is their actual job. Their job is not primarily in the offices, but in the field and the border is one place where they have to ensure that the country is not losing anything though their presence,” he said.
Headlands Member of House of Assembly, Cde Farai Mapfumo said the country must not sacrifice the God-given minerals on the altar of ease of doing business.
“Yes, we need to be seen to be facilitating the ease of doing business. No one denies that. However, we should not be seen to be sacrificing the God-given minerals on the altar of ease of doing business.
“There are ways that can certainly be worked out to ensure that we secure our minerals, while at the same time provide ease of doing business for our visitors or investors.
“MMCZ should be right at the border and given space to operate without necessarily hindering the smooth flow of business at a given border post,” he said.
Ideally, minerals are a finite resource that needs to be utilised for the benefit of the nation when extracted. Apart from being finite, the international prices of minerals fluctuate, further buttressing the need to utilise extracted minerals when they still have value.
For example, the acute down spiraling of tantalite prices on the international market has resulted in the sudden disappearance of both local and foreign mining investors who had invaded Buhera District.
Fielding questions from Members of the House of Assembly during the Vumba workshop, MMCZ’s corporate’s marketing manager, Mr Gumisai Nenzou said: “There is a fluctuation of the prices of minerals that we actively market as MMCZ. For example, there was once a hype around tantalite mining in Buhera District here in Manicaland. The demand was spurred by cellphone manufacturing clients who needed the product.
“We saw numerous tantalite mining bases being set up in Buhera, and at the time tantalite was going for US$1 200 per kilogramme. Today, the same product has drastically gone down to US$100 for the same weight.
“Given the production costs and other mining related expenses, it might no longer make any business sense, hence the disappearance of those who were mining it in Buhera,” said Mr Nenzou.
