The opposition National Patriotic Front has revealed very intricate details on the missing $15 billion from diamond proceeds saying moves by the Parliamentary Portfolio committee on Mines and Energy to invite former President Robert Mugabe for a hearing are sideshows meant to exonerate real people who have a role in the looting of the country’s diamonds.
In a scathing statement released today, NPF Spokesperson, Jealousy Mawarire warned Temba Mliswa who chairs the Parliamentary Committee on Mines and Energy against abusing his position to harass Mugabe, “through a fake process aimed at obfuscating debate around the abuse of diamonds and diamonds revenue through illegal mining activities by Zimbabwe Security ministries, namely Home Affairs, Defence and State Security.”
Mawarire revealed that Mnangagwa and Chiwenga who were then Minister of Defence and Zimbabwe National Army Commander respectively mined diamonds through Anjin in partnership with some Chinese nationals.
“Despite public knowledge that the Zimbabwe defence forces under its then commander, General Chiwenga and then Minister of Defence, Mnangagwa mined diamonds through a company called Anjin in partnership with some Chinese nationals, Mliswa’s committee has avoided questioning the duo’s role in the looting of the country’s diamonds,” said Mawarire.
“We believe that the Mliswa committee should interrogate why Minister Obert Mpofu despite written communication in the “ZMDC Due Diligence Memorandum” went on to award the right to partner ZMDC to mine diamonds in Marange to an undeserving company against available information to the contrary,” added Mawarire.
He also revealed details on the ownership of Mbada Diamonds, one of the major companies that were involved in the extraction of diamonds in Marange.
“Despite available information in the memorandum which pointed out that Reclam, the company that later partnered ZMDC to form Mbada and mine the Marange diamonds “is not a mining house and is currently not involved in diamond mining”, the minister went ahead to bless the partnership.
“Even the fact that Reclam had “no diamond mining equipment” and that the company had no diamond mining as part of its vision and growth strategy” did not dissuade the minister from blessing the joint venture and one wonders what sort of gain the minister realised for awarding such an undeserving company a piece of this important national resource when the company was bringing in no expertise, equipment not strategic vision to such an important national venture.
“The Mliswa committee should investigate why Reclam sold its shares to Transfrontier resulting in a convoluted ownership structure in Mbada through multiple nominee shareholders which betray an intricate web of unscrupulous business dealings. The effective ownership interest of Nominee shareholders in Mbada, before its dissolution included Lesley Chang (12.50%), Billy Li (6.25%), Express Agents (3.13%) and Leisure Star Limited (3.13%),” revealed Mawarire.
“Lesley Chang and Billy Li and Hong Kong residents who own CLHA Secretaries, a company that provides services setting up anonymous, offshore shell companies mainly used in money laundering and other unscrupulous business dealings,” further revealed Mawarire.
He urged the Mliswa led parliamentary committee to get down to business and investigate how diamonds were looted out of the country.
