The cash-strapped state of Zimbabwe has to find ways to earn money to fund its basic needs.
The country has the world’s fastest-shrinking economy as the result of a failed land redistribution program in which farms owned by the whites were grabbed and handed over to black subsistence farmers, ruining the country’s agricultural production.
Diamond export earns important foreign exchange for the country. Almost half of the country’s exports was diamonds in 2004.
But, illegal mining is eating into this resource. The government is trying hard to put an end to the illegal mining of diamonds. Corruption is rampant everywhere in the administration.
A diamond seam was discovered in Marange in September 2006 by the England-based African Consolidated Resources Plc, which owned the property. The zimbabwean government seized the 25 acre site in December, without paying compensation.
Thousands of impoverished people are thronging to this land hoping to dig out diamonds. The government has kept the land under heavy security. But the military personnel who are paid only the equivalent of US $5 a month, thanks to the sky-rocketing inflation which was 1730% last year, are themselves digging for gems and precious stones.
Illegal miners, when caught, are severely punished and, in some cases imprisoned for many days without proper enquiry.
About 20,000 people have been illegally digging for diamonds at Marange. They use bare hands, shovels, or whatever small implements they have. Illegal digging has reduced poverty here. Traders buy diamonds at very cheap rates and sell them for high profits in Johannesburg and make money.
Travellers on roads between the cities are searched by security men for diamonds. Mavis Musarurwa, a housewife travelling to Harare, said `They even search through our hair to see if they can find gold dust. It is degrading.’ But many people actualy smuggle gold and diamonds to South Africa.
President Mugabe (83), who is fighting a losing battle against inflation and a strident opposition, is attempting to stop the drainage of revenue.
