PANNERS . . . illegal diamond panners in Chiadzwa

HARARE – The directors of two firms licensed to mine diamonds at the Chiadzwa diamond field continued to play truancy with Parliament, dodging for the second time on Monday a hearing to probe their activities at the controversial diamond field in eastern Zimbabwe.

Mbada Investments and Canadile Miners – joint venture companies between state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) and some South African investors -- did not turn up for the scheduled meeting with Parliament’s portfolio committee on mines where they were due to explain their work at Chiadzwa also known as Marange.

The directors of the two firms also failed to pitch up for another meeting with the parliamentary committee about two weeks ago and irate legislators yesterday said the committee was considering pursuing contempt of Parliament charges against the two secretive mining companies.

“We have asked for advice from the deputy clerk because we want to nail them. We are preparing for that and we want to conclude the process by next Monday so that on Tuesday we move the contempt of Parliament motion,” a legislator told ZimOnline.

But committee chairperson Edward Chindori Chininga was non-committal when asked about the possibility of bring charges against the mining firms telling reporters his committee will decide by Tuesday what action to take against the firms.

“Come tomorrow, we will have a clearer position for you but I can confirm that the two companies did not turn up for the hearing,” said Chininga.

Chininga’s committee two weeks ago warned the diamond miners they could face contempt of Parliament charges if they fail to show up for hearings on their companies and their mining activities.

The ZMDC last year partnered little known Grandwell of South Africa to form Mbada Investments, while also partnering another obscure South African firm Core Mining and Minerals to form Canadile Miners.

The joint ventures were formed as part of measures to bring mining of diamonds at Chiadzwa in line with standards stipulated by world diamond industry watchdog, the Kimberley Process (KP).

But the two companies’ operations in the notorious diamond field are shrouded in controversy amid revelations that some members of the boards of the two firms were once illegal drug and diamond dealers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Sierra Leone.

The two firms are not known names in the diamond industry with for example Grandwell known to have been involved in scrap metal dealing in South Africa before they came to mine diamonds at Marange.

Marange is one of the world’s most controversial diamond fields with reports that soldiers sent to guard the claims after the government took over the field in October 2006 from a British firm that owned the deposits committed gross human rights abuses against illegal miners who had descended on the field.

Human rights groups have been pushing for a ban on Zimbabwean diamonds but last November, the country escaped a KP ban with the global body giving Harare a June 2010 deadline to make reforms to comply with its regulations. – ZimOnline