Marange villagers who yesterday demonstrated against human rights abuses and plunder of diamonds have vowed to continue with demonstrations until government address their grievances, 263Chat can reveal.
In an interview with 263Chat, Marange Development Trust (MDT) Chairperson, Malvern Mudiwa said restriction of human movement has resulted in many people being shot and beaten to death even without committing crimes, leading to villagers raising red flag to demand a stop to that.
“People are being shot and beaten to death. Everyone is forced to carry an ID, if you are found without it you will be taken to what they are calling a base and beaten, sometimes to death,” said Mudiwa.
He said demonstrations will continue today up until an agreement is reached through a roundtable discussion with the mining company management.
Following discovery of alluvial diamonds by Marange people in April 2006, the Zimbabwe government moved in and declared the area a protected zone.
According to Mudiwa, before the discovery of diamonds, Chiadzwa villagers depended on crop cultivation, breeding goats, cattle and chickens (road-runners), selling wild fruits, charcoal and gardening but their lifestyles had been disturbed as they can no longer enjoy the same freedoms they used to have.
Marange villagers have reported that Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) uses torture as a method of punishing artisanal miners with vehicle owners required to go to Mutare every month to renew the permit to drive in the area.
Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company is a diamond mining company wholly owned by the Government of Zimbabwe. The Company has mining operations in Manicaland in Mutare’ s Chiadzwa area and in Chimanimani.
In an interview with a local newspaper, ZCDC Head of Public Relations, Sugar Chagonda said the demos were politically motivated.
“We believe they are rented crowds sponsored by opposition political parties to discredit the good works we have done for the community. We have done a lot of community social responsibility programmes such construction of roads, rehabilitation of clinics, schools, supporting tillage programmes and drilling boreholes.
“These people were used to receiving food handouts from Mbada Diamonds, which was more of a solution for immediate concerns yet what we are doing is something they will benefit from way into the future. We will however go to the ground to establish how it can be solved,” said Mr Chagonda.
