From Rags to Riches, the Obert Mpofu Story
on November 16, 2012 at 11:19 pm
It is a long road from Jambezi Village in the dry district of Hwange, in
Matabeleland, to the opulence and influence that currently surrounds Obert
Mpofu. Growing up in rural Jambezi, Mpofu came from a family of limited
means.
Mines Minister Obert Mpofu (centre) is a man of significant means
During the long guerilla war against the racist regime of Ian Smith, Mpofu’s
family—like the majority of people in Matabeleland—supported the Zimbabwe
African People’s Union (ZAPU), a rival liberation group to President Robert
Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU).
The extent of Mpofu’s direct involvement in the war as a young teenager was
limited to being an occasional messenger between ZAPU comrades in
then-Rhodesia and neighbouring Zambia. In his late teens he was accepted for
training under legendary ZIPRA commander, Nikita Mangena; however, Mpofu was
dismissed shortly afterwards for being “untrainable and divisive within the
camp”, according to a high level ZIPRA source.
Mpofu’s lack of military training is supported by a former colleague who
noted that while Mpofu claims to have attained the “guerilla rank equivalent
of Major…he seemed clearly awkward with firearms” and needed a crash course
in how to operate and use a pistol when presented with one.
Mpofu the Journalist
Mpofu subsequently left Zimbabwe to study journalism at the University of
New Delhi. While his career as a journalist would be short-lived—brief
stints as a reporter in Zambia, and years later as a manager at Zimbabwe
Newspapers—his time in India would pay dividends three decades later in
securing a market for Marange’s tainted diamonds.
From Mpofu’s return from India it was clear he had ambitions for himself. In
the early days of an independent Zimbabwe Mpofu made a career decision some
still consider opportunistic: he renounced his family’s political roots and
joined ZANU. The reason was less political than a matter of survival.
At the time Mpofu was working as a manager with Customs and Excise in
Harare, where he was remembered for engaging in conduct unbecoming of a
civil servant, including accepting a junket to Bulgaria from the Balkan
Airlines representative at Harare International Airport.
He was later investigated for allegedly smuggling some televisions into
Zimbabwe. Several sources have confirmed that faced with the possibility of
criminal charges, Mpofu sought out the advice of Enos Nkala, a ZANU
patriarch, who recommend that joining the party would result in a favourable
outcome.
Mpofu did and he was never charged with any infraction. The political
conversion was no small matter considering the growing repression of ZAPU
supporters and leaders by President Mugabe and his party.
The persecution culminated in the infamous Gukurahundi massacres, in which
the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade executed an estimated 20,000 people
in Matabeleland. The pogroms achieved their purpose: in 1987 ZAPU leaders
capitulated and merged with ZANU, effectively marginalizing any political
competition to Mugabe.
Mpofu’s political conversion
For Mpofu, his political conversion opened up doors, launching his career as
a ZANU politician, first at the provincial level and finally at the national
level where he quickly rose through the ranks. In 2000, the President
appointed him Governor of Matabeleland, and five years later, Minister of
Industry and International Trade—an appointment best remembered for his
failed attempt to fix commodity prices during hyperinflation, resulting in
empty shops.
As he rose through the ZANU ranks, Mpofu began dabbling in the private
sector. Other than his flagship companies— Trebo and Khays, Maminza
Transport, Khanando Safari and Tours, and the recently acquired ZABG bank,
which are registered companies— little is known of Mpofu’s business empire.
The Zimbabwean media has often referred to Mpofu going on a real estate
“buying spree”, primarily in Bulawayo and Victoria Falls, since the Marange
diamond rush but have provided little corroborating evidence.
The most detailed, yet unconfirmed report, listed cash-purchases of a
supermarket in Victoria Falls’ Chinotimba high density suburb, three houses
in a medium-density area, two cruise boats on the Zambezi, five houses in
Mkhosana high-density suburb, three houses in Chinotimba, two industrial
stands, one large stand in Chisuma, one big industrial stand next to
Chinotimba stadium, four industrial stands on the Airport road, and four
medium-density plots.
Proving ownership of many of these properties, particularly in high-density
areas, is difficult due to non-existent, or out of date, municipal records.
Mpofu’s habit of not registering his smaller companies further hampers
efforts to get a full picture of his business holdings.
Obert Mpofu’s 60th Birthday Bash
In December 2011, however, Mpofu’s vanity got the better of him and he
unwittingly gave Zimbabweans a window into his empire. He did it in the most
public forum possible—a 16 page advertorial in The Chronicle, a pro-ZANU
daily in Bulawayo.
The advertorial was ostensibly published and funded by Mpofu to mark his
60th birthday and his doctorate in “Policy Studies” from the Zimbabwean Open
University, a distance based institution. Among the words of encouragement
from family members and articles extolling Mpofu as the “minister with [a]
diamond touch”, a “leader of quality and stead” and a “true people’s
servant” were advertisements linked to Mpofu’s main businesses.
Among the listed companies with established links to Mpofu were Trebo and
Khays, Maminza Properties, Maminza Transport, Khanondo Safari and Tours,
Khanondo Car Hire, Horseshow Estate, KoMpofu La Sports Bar, Luna Rainbow
Tours, Guest Paradise Lodge, Good Memories Lodge, Mswelangubo Farm, New
Miners Restaurant (Hwange), Accut and Crews Village, Moya Security and
Matetsi Meat Butchery.
PAC could not definitively link Mpofu to several other businesses that took
out adverts, including, Zainali Holdings, Clarendon Court P/L, Moban
Investments, and Steelfab Engineering (a division of Engzib Investments).
Ryan’s Brick Work was also listed—a company known to have installed tens of
thousands of dollars of brick paving at his Umguza residence ahead of his
60th birthday party.
Like many of his ZANU brethren, Mpofu built much of his wealth through
“vulture capitalism”—a money for nothing appropriation of profitable
businesses and/or assets that are later “legitimized” through normal
business activity.
The land seizures of the 2000’s are one expression of this phenomenon,
whereby top ZANU apparatchiks acquired commercial farms and took over the
business affairs of the former white owners. Without exerting any sweat
equity or risking any financial obligation with a bank a few of these
individuals turned themselves into successful farmers overnight.
Many others, including Mbada CEO Robert Mhlanga and the late General Solomon
Mujuru, made fortunes exploiting high value minerals—particularly
gold—during Zimbabwe’s intervention in the war in the Democratic Republic of
Congo.
Although a wealthy man before his appointment as Minister of Mines in 2009,
Mpofu’s assets and spending habits have grown exponentially since he granted
the first diamond mining licence to Mhlanga and David Kassell, a South
African scrap metal dealer, neither of whom had any prior mining experience.
With the media attention mostly focused on his real estate holdings in
Bulawayo and Victoria Falls, less attention has been given to his
landholdings which PAC has determined likely place him in the top five
landowners in the country. In Matabeleland his holdings come second only to
the 135,000ha owned by the Oppenheimer family in Shangani, 200 kilometers
northeast of Bulawayo.
Among Mpofu’s land holdings are:
• 10,006ha, North Part, Umguza Block. This is property formerly owned by
Cold Storage Commission (CSC) and is known specifically as Blocks 39, 40 and
41.
• 1027ha, Auchenburg Farm, Nyamandlovu.
• Green Haven farm. Located close to the Umguza River just outside Bulawayo
on the Victoria Falls road, this is a farm Mpofu has reportedly owned for
some time and where he keeps most of his herd.
• 3,700ha, Umguza CSC Block.
• 2,300ha, Young Farm, Nyamandlovu.
• 8000ha, Horseshoe Ranch, Matetsi. It is believed Mpofu bought this
property from Bill Bedford in 2008 for an undisclosed sum. At the time of
publication, hunting and safari operations were run by Shaun Kearney, a
South African.
• 100ha, in Epping Forest B section, a part of Accut and Crew, a formerly
white owned farm bought for resettlement in 1996. Now referred to as
Mswelangubo farm it serves as Mpofu’s main residence. The property has
undergone extensive upgrades recently including approximately $150,000 on
fencing and paving ahead of the lavish December 2011 party, the cost of
which is estimated at another $250,000.
In March 2012 a 10-kilometre stretch of road to this house was being
resurfaced by a brand new Caterpillar excavator—something that the Umguza
Rural Council would not have the money to do. The property also houses
several commercial ventures, including a horticulture business, an abattoir
and a chicken factory.
The Auchenburg and Young farms and Umguza Block are named as such in the
2005 list of sanctioned farms and businesses managed by the US Treasury
Department’s Office for Foreign Asset Control (OFAC).
With the exception of Horseshoe Ranch, Mpofu acquired the rights to control
most of this land for free. At this juncture an important distinction needs
to be made: the absence of any record of payment or land titles point to
Mpofu controlling, but not owning, many of these properties, particularly
those that were once State-owned.
In addition to the above listings of approximately 25,000ha:
PAC has learned that Mpofu also controls Winter Block, a 40,000ha section of
land next to Umguza Block. A source with an intimate knowledge of the Cold
Storage Commission land holdings confirms that this is an entirely separate
parcel of land. Following the land invasions of 2000, Winter Block was
largely divided between former Vice-President Joseph Msika and High Court
Judge Maphios Cheda.
Msika died in 2009 and Cheda has maintained only a minimal interest in the
area after being awarded another farm in 2008. Since then Mpofu has
primarily used Winter Block to graze his cattle, which he has boasted is the
biggest herd in Zimbabwe. With total farm holdings of at least 65,000ha,
this would also place Mpofu amongst the country’s biggest landowners.
Mpofu’s possession of land belonging to the Cold Storage Commission is
likely in contravention with Zimbabwean law. The terms of the Land
Acquisition Act—the legislation responsible for the dispossession of most
white-owned land—explicitly limits expropriations to private and
commercially held farmland, not state assets. His exclusive use of the land
raises several questions, including how Mpofu obtained this government land,
and what, if any, rent State coffers receive for its use.
Mpofu and his cattle
Cattle hold a special place in the social status of African men. They are
another form of currency and symbol of a person’s success and influence. In
Mpofu’s case his herd is clearly a big source of personal pride and
legitimate revenue. He has said that he has a herd of about 3,000 breeding
cattle, and uses a feedlot in Umguza to fatten another herd of “about a
1,000 at a time.” Mpofu’s farm manager, Dumisani Moyo, claims that they
“sell about 50 cattle every week…and the profits are good.”
If those numbers are correct, Mpofu would gross as much as $50,000 a week
from this business during culling season, although some observers think his
output is closer to half that. Several sources confirm that the Minister is
a regular attendee to auctions held by CC Sales in Bulawayo and Harare.
However, witnesses and agents alike both say they have never seen Mpofu
actually purchase any cattle himself. Most suspect it is done through
proxies, including Dumisani Moyo. If Mpofu’s herd is as big as he says it
is—approximately 4,000 cattle—he will have spent some serious money to build
and maintain it to that size.
Mixed pedigree cattle sell at auction for a minimum of $600 a head,
conservatively valuing Mpofu’s cattle purchases at over $2 million. Mpofu’s
ranching operations are run by Innocent Ncube, who is widely respected for
his farming acumen. In the last year he has also invested heavily in new
infrastructure, including a 330 metre-long shed (at a cost of $100,000)
beside the railway line that runs through Umguza.
Cattle are not Mpofu’s only passion. His acquisition of marque properties in
Bulawayo and Victoria Falls would make Mpofu the envy of any Monopoly
player. However, unlike his cattle business that actually generates income,
Mpofu’s real estate dealings appear to be a chronic cash drain on the
Minister. It is estimated that since mid-2009, Mpofu has acquired urban
property in Matabeleland worth at least $5 million.
During the same time frame it is estimated he has invested at least $2.5
million in renovations to properties in Bulawayo, Victoria Falls, Umguza and
Nyamandlovu. His best known, and most prized, fixed assets include:
• Anchor House, Bulawayo. This five-storey building at the corner of Fort
Street and 12th Avenue is Mpofu’s most recent known acquisition. In mid-2012
it was undergoing renovations, including a full paint job. The purchase
price is unknown but similar buildings currently sell between $1-$2 million
in Bulawayo’s depressed real estate market.
• A property commonly known as the Centrust Building, Bulawayo. Bought for
$750,000 in 2011, it is one of Mpofu’s single biggest cash purchase. The
building, located at 47 Fort St, housed several businesses including a
travel agency of the same name. The purchase included subdivision A of Stand
9.The property was bought from the Khaley family in a deal reportedly
facilitated by Bulawayo businessman Hitish Patel. All tenants vacated the
building when Mpofu hiked the rent. In March 2012 the building was empty.
• A dilapidated two-storey office block on the edge of Bulawayo’s central
business district, at the corner of Fife and First Avenue. It has been under
construction for more than two years.
• York House, Bulawayo. At seven stories, this is one of Bulawayo’s tallest
buildings and is said to be Mpofu’s pride and joy. Purchased for a song by
Mpofu’s company Trebo and Khays in 2007 during the height of hyperinflation,
it was partially rented by AgriBank until 2011. It is has sat empty for
almost two years as it undergoes extensive renovations, including a full
interior gutting and the installation of new elevators.
Contractors familiar with the project estimate the renovations at least
$1.5million. With the long-term absence of rental income, Mpofu is
undoubtedly drawing on other sources to pay for the renovations.
• 46 Magpie Road, Bulawayo. This ostentatious two-storey property is located
on a two-hectare plot in the tony suburb of Burnside. Mpofu acquired it more
than 20 years ago but it has quadrupled in size after undergoing recent
renovations estimated at $150,000. Mpofu’s Hummer has been seen at this
address, as have police and private security guards.
• 10 Livingstone Road, Suburbs, Bulawayo. Several sources confirmed they
have met Mpofu at this suburban property, which sometimes acts as his office
in Bulawayo. It has extensive security, including expensive surrounding
walls, gates and guard house. It is also where Three Waters Investments, a
diamond trading company, is known to conduct business. Since becoming
Minister of Mines, Mpofu has also made some other interesting purchases—both
for himself and some of his companies.
After Trebo and Khays, his best known business is Khanondo Safari and Tours
in Victoria Falls. According to company brochures and its website, Khanondo
offers a range of activities including boat cruises on the Zambezi River,
game drives, tours as far afield as Namibia, helicopter flights, white water
rafting adventures and “VIP transfers”. All the assets required to offer
tourists these services, other than the helicopter, are “owned” by Khanondo.
Khanondo also offers accommodation to suit different budgets, ranging from
Guest Paradise Lodge ($120 a night) to the five star Victoria Falls Deluxe
Suites ($330 for bed and breakfast). Khanondo also recently completed
construction on the High Mount Lodge, described by a company official as
“[topping] the accommodation rankings of Bulawayo due to its beauty and
exclusivity.”
Victoria Falls is the jewel among Zimbabwe’s disintegrating tourist
attractions.
But since 2000 when land seizures, hyperinflation and political violence
took hold, tourists have largely abandoned Zimbabwe in favour of
neighbouring countries. Despite the economic setbacks suffered by many tour
operators, Khanondo has made several investments others cannot afford.
In 2011, for example, Khanondo took receipt of a brand new 80-seat boat
worth $250,000. It also took possession of the best dock on the Zambezi
River and bought a smaller boat, for more intimate breakfast and sunset
cruises. Khanondo’s car rental business also boasts the town’s only luxury
fleet of cars, including Mercedes sedans, high-end SUVs, safari jeeps and
vans.
The value of the cars pictured on Khanondo’s website would conservatively be
in excess of half a million dollars. These are not Mpofu’s only luxury
vehicles. He personally owns several cars but his two favourites are a new
Range Rover Sport (base price: $80,000) and a black Hummer ($60,000). The
former is regularly seen at his Burnside residence. Largely because of its
gas guzzling thirst the Hummer is a rarity in Zimbabwe, even among other
elites, where the price of petrol is high and shortages are frequent.
Mpofu in Transport
Since becoming Minister, another Mpofu company, Maminza Transport, has also
come into possession of several Volvo heavy haulage trucks and some drilling
equipment. The FH 12 model trucks, believed to be as many as eight, are kept
at the former Clan Transport depot on the Plumtree Road in Bulawayo. Both
trucks and drilling equipment have been seen in Hwange, where coal is mined,
raising the possibility that Mpofu is diversifying into another resource
under his ministerial control.
In August 2011 Mpofu controversially appointed Farai Mutamangira, a friend
and lawyer who he has hired to represent Zimbabwe over its KP compliance
issues, to be CEO of the Hwange Colliery, a state-owned coal company. The
trucks, which retail at over $100,000 a piece, are decaled with “Maminza
Transport” signs on the doors and “OMM”—Obert Moses Mpofu—and a sequential
number stenciled above windscreen.
The origin of the trucks is a mystery.
There is only one Volvo dealer in Southern Africa—Babcock Africa Services in
Johannesburg. Because Mpofu is listed on EU and US sanctions over concerns
of his involvement in either corrupt or violent activity, it is illegal for
an international company like Volvo, through Babcock, to sell these trucks
directly to Mpofu.
One explanation could be that Mpofu purchased them through a proxy company
completely unassociated with his name—a loophole famously exploited by other
named individuals like Billy Rautenbach. Another answer may lie in the
November 2010 collapse of Core Mining, the South African diamond company
that joint ventured with the ZMDC to form Canadile.
In February 2012 Babcock won a liquidation order against Core Mining in
South African court for unpaid debts of $1.4 million, including for similar
Volvo trucks. Since Canadile’s implosion the company has reverted to being a
wholly owned entity of the government. Operating as Marange Resources the
company is wholly owned by the ZMDC, a State agency under Mpofu’s
ministerial control.
As Marange Resources has retained most of Core’s assets there is very little
prospect of Babcock being able to collect on its judgment. This raises two
possible scenarios that Mpofu should clarify as soon as possible: did he
acquire these trucks at great personal expense and in breach of Western
economic measures or he is in possession of former Core Mining property that
legally belongs to Babcock?
Mpofu buys a bank
Of all Obert Mpofu’s acquisitions, none of them raised so much public
interest as his May 2012 purchase of the asset-less Zimbabwe Allied Banking
Group. ZABG has a storied history. Created by Reserve Bank Governor Gideon
Gono during hyper-inflationary times, it was always viewed with suspicion by
the banking sector which perceived it as a vehicle through which ZANU
insiders carried out currency manipulations—a fact highlighted by the bank’s
decline following the dollarization of the economy in 2009.
What Mpofu paid for the worthless bank is unknown. One media report claimed
he spent $22.5 million, while another put the figure at $27.8 million, after
accounting for ZABG debts of $15.3 million. What is certain is Mpofu,
through his company Trebo and Khays, invested at least $12.5 million—the
minimum capitalization required by banking laws to operate.
Gideon Gono has also confirmed that Mpofu is the “99.9% shareholder” of
ZABG, although he has two years within which to “regularize the ownership
structure” so no one shareholder can own more than 25 percent. Why would
Mpofu want to refloat a bankrupt bank? What benefit could it serve him? Some
speculate that the reason is simply about ego. “Once you have a farm and a
safari lodge, why not a bank?” one banker told PAC.
Others see it as a chance to capture the banking business of ZANU supporters
in Matabeleland and increase his political prestige. Others, a way to
dispense patronage and nepotism. All are valid, especially after he
announced his intentions to move the bank from Harare to Bulawayo.
Less charitable banking sources point out similar banks, in the hands of
other people, have been used for another purpose: laundering illicit revenue
streams. How the laundering is done can take several forms, including
extending bogus loans which go into default, or paying employees, often
family members, at rates higher than industry standards.
Having only taken control of ZABG in August 2012, there is no evidence Mpofu
has engaged in any money laundering; rather his prime motivation has a
diamond connection that has been overlooked by almost everyone. In March
2012, cabinet took a decision to compel all mining companies to bank their
money with local financial institutions following revelations that mining
companies—including ones operating in Marange—were stashing billions of
dollars in foreign accounts.
The decision has merit—capital flight is bad for any economy—but Mpofu’s
ownership of the bank opens the door to possible charges of conflict of
interest once mining companies, which are dependent on his ministerial
approval for their projects, start shopping for a local bank. Do they take
their business to ZABG, for example, in the hopes it will guarantee a
favourable decision?
ZABG is not the only business through which Mpofu has used his ministerial
position to benefit from diamonds.
Mpofu also has a close relationship to Three Waters Investment, a diamond
trading company based out of one of his Bulawayo properties, 10 Livingstone
Road. Operations are aided by Nyasha Mpofu, a trained diamond sorter,who has
a reputation for dealing only in top quality gem diamonds.
She is also known to personally arrange for diamond shipments to
Johannesburg. PAC could not confirm claims that she is a relative of the
minister. Sources say the company is not part of the emerging cutting and
polishing industry—against which Mpofu was forced to act in 2011 following
concerns companies were illegally trading diamonds.
The perception—real or perceived—that a relative of the Minister is
obtaining a pecuniary benefit from an industry over which he has fiduciary
responsibility is troubling. It raises multiple conflicts of interest for
the Minister. Prime among them: What role did he personally play in
procuring diamonds for Three Waters Investment or facilitating their export?
What is not in doubt is how diamonds have helped to boost Mpofu’s political
influence and aspirations within ZANU structures. He is now clearly
considered the ZANU patron in Matabeleland, to which his political lessers
pay homage and seek protection. He routinely dispenses philanthropy and
personal patronage on a scale unmatched anywhere else in Zimbabwe.
In February 2012, for example, he provided a generator to Chinotimba Clinic
in Victoria Falls. A few months later, in June, he and his wife are reported
to have distributed ten tonnes of grain to 600 families in the district of
Ntabazinduna. One media report pegged the value of the donation at $180,000.
The next month he visited another village in Matabeleland with gifts of
grain, heifers for the chiefs, and a promise to build a chief’s hall.
He is often referred to as being a patron of the financially beleaguered
Highlanders Football Club and the Umguza Sinjalo Message Choir. His election
as ZANU’s only representative in Matabeleland in the 2008 elections has
often been attributed to his personal attention to his constituents needs,
including the payment of school fees for primary going children.
Diamonds have also allowed Mpofu to flex his muscles within ZANU circles.
While any presidential ambitions are firmly in check—as a minority Ndebele
the chances of winning the confidence of his Shona countrymen are nil—he has
made no secret of his intentions to seek one of two ZANU vice-presidencies,
upon the resignation of incumbent, John Nkomo, who is cancer-stricken.
Mpofu’s aspirations, however, face one small obstacle: one of the
vice-presidencies is reserved for someone who was a ZAPU member at the time
of the 1987 ZANUZAPU power sharing agreement. Mpofu jumped ship in 1982,
therefore making him ineligible, at least in theory. This rule, however, is
not set in stone. Mpofu has deftly played on his Marange connections to
cultivate key former ZIPRA members who could play decisive roles advancing
his political ambitions.
This is particularly the case with Tshinga Dube, the CEO of Marange
Resources, former CEO of ZDI and a member of ZANU’s politburo, the party’s
supreme decision-making body. Mpofu’s deference to the military chiefs who
control and exploit Marange’s riches—especially those aligned to Defence
Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, the heir apparent when President Mugabe
dies—also bode well for his efforts to consolidate his place within the ZANU
hierarchy.
Mpofu’s recent financial windfall and political prestige is a fundamental
matter of public interest. Any time a senior politician in any country is
allowed to amass an unexplained fortune, as Mpofu has done, questions must
be asked not only about how that came to be, but why no steps have been
taken to investigate possible financial wrongdoing or usurping of the public
good.
Mpofu’s wealth is symbolic of the larger mismanagement of Zimbabwe’s natural
resources. Certainly, he has become very rich since becoming the Minister of
Mines, making him a figurehead for the illegality occurring in Marange, but
this story is about more than Obert Mpofu alone. Ultimately it is about the
greed and corruption that lies at the heart of ZANU as a political
institution.
ZANU’s vulture capitalism has never been a one-man operation. From asset
stripping of state enterprises to farm seizures to currency manipulations
during hyper-inflation to Marange, their track record shows that ZANU hunts
and feasts as a pack. Their strength lies in their unity, not their
individual parts. They are deeply distrustful of each other, leading those
involved in any illegal venture to share the profits, rather than allow one
individual to amass wealth on the collective’s behalf, or expense.
Like a gang, they achieve conformity within the group by ensuring that
everyone is implicated in the illegality. Those that have gotten too greedy,
or sought to exit the game, have paid a hard price. They have been publicly
ridiculed, politically ostracized, forced into exile, and often stripped of
their wealth with the same speed with which they amassed it.
Those who know Mpofu say he is not capable of single-handedly masterminding
events in Marange, but he is smart enough to know how to help those that do.
That he has survived this long, shows he has enough sense to know that his
continued beneficiation is linked to placating the needs of a small and
tight group of political and military elites who have been in charge of
Marange since the very beginning.
Zimbabwe cannot be allowed to continue to trade diamonds in this fashion.
Those who naively or willfully look the other way to Zimbabwe’s
mismanagement of its diamond deposits—as the Kimberley Process has done—will
only undermine consumer confidence in the diamond sector. Industry members,
particularly those in South Africa, Dubai and India, who in any way
associate themselves with the companies operating in Zimbabwe—whether deemed
KP compliant or not—should be under no illusion as to the criminal elements
they are dealing with. They are not helping the economic recovery of an
impoverished country.
In fact, they are doing the opposite—they are enabling corruption and those
who have led political repression and violence in Zimbabwe. Improvements
will only come if there is a unified response, beginning with industry
members, but supported by national governments, that demands better of
Zimbabwe. The next section offers suggestions on possible ways to support
such efforts.