HARARE – Zimbabwe’s Parliament will write to the directors of two firms licensed to mine diamonds at Chiadzwa diamond field to cooperate with the House’s inquiry into alleged irregularities in the diamond sector, a top legislator said on Tuesday.

Edward Chindori Chininga, chairman of the House special committee on mines, said they were going to write to Mbada Investments and Canadile Miners’ directors who have continued to play truancy with committee, dodging for the second time on Monday a hearing to probe their activities at the controversial diamond field in eastern Zimbabwe.

“Parliament will now write to them and explain the rules of Parliament. We are not after confrontation, we want to look at the things that affect the country,” Chininga said.

Some members of the committee had indicated on Monday that the it would institute contempt of Parliament charges against Mbada and Canadile directors, for refusing to for the hearings.

The two are joint venture companies between state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) and some South African investors extracting diamonds at the Chiadzwa field that is also known as Marange.

MPs who spoke to ZimOnline Monday had said the contempt of Parliament motion was expected to be moved in the House next week.

But committee chairperson Edward Chindori Chininga poured water on the probe saying they had resolved to write to the directors of the two companies and “persuade them to cooperate with Parliament”.

“We are not in a rush to put them into contempt. This is a very serious charge,” said Chininga a former minister of mines and  member of President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF

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