“There should also be a thorough due diligence
exercise to determine what exactly happened to the alluvial diamonds from
Marange and Chiadzwa,” wrote MDC-T spokesman Obert Gutu. “If heads have to
roll, so be it! There should be absolutely no sacred cows.”
Sweet, sweet music to my ears!
The wholesale looting and plunder in Marange and
Chiadzwa is, without doubt, one of the darkest chapter in our nation’s history;
up there with the Gukurahundi madness.
The discovery of alluvial diamonds in Marange and
Chiadzwa in 2006 valued at $800 billion was comparable to the discovery of oil
in Arab Peninsular; it was our ticket out of poverty! Instead this blessing has
turned into the nation’s worst curse.
In 2012 Africa Partnership Canada, an NGO
monitoring the illegal diamond trade, said President Mugabe pocketed a
staggering $2 billion in that year alone from his share of the wholesale
looting and plunder that has been going on in Marange. By keeping all this cash
to himself and his few cronies who too have diamond mining concessions
President Mugabe has starved the nation of the cash for essential economic development
and critical basic needs.
The papers reported other day that Parerenyatwa
and Mpilo Hospitals had 50% of the drugs they need; no doubt the situation in
the district hospitals and clinics is a lot worse. Another story said that
water in Kariba Dam had dropped to 12% and so there will be a new wave of powers
cut beyond the present 18 hours out of 24 power cuts. Assuming President Mugabe
has been getting his $2 billion cut every year for the last 10 years, it is
clear we would not be having these drug shortages or power cut if the $20
billion have been invested wisely in these areas!
What makes our situation even worse is that
President Mugabe and his cronies have used the looted wealth to bankroll the
regime’s vote rigging schemes. Zanu PF must have spent billions of dollars in
the July 2013 elections from $10 million paid to NIKUV to corrupt the voters
roll, millions paid to PR companies in UK and USA to spruce up President Mugabe’s
image, billions buying Zanu PF candidate new cars and paying their election
expenses, etc., etc.
So instead of the diamond wealth dragging us out
of poverty and squalor, the wealth is now being used to bankroll our continued
political oppression and thus dragging us even deeper into poverty hopelessness
and despair.
We owe it to ourselves to have the looting and
plunder in Marange and Chiadzwa thoroughly investigated a.s.a.p. because no
nation can afford such a criminal waste of its resources and, whilst this is
allowed to continue, are hopes and dreams of a democratic Zimbabwe will remain
just that – a dream.
I glad to hear Gutu say “there should be
absolutely no sacred cows” because the MDC leader, Tsvangirai has played a role
in this national tragedy. Tsvangirai was one of the few politicians who inspected
the going on in Marange in 2012 and gave everything a thumbs-up. A few weeks
after his visit to Marange, Tsvangirai was living-it in the presidential suite
on the MS Legend of Seas, a Cruise Ship.
The grand theft in Marange and Chiadzwa was
institutionalized during the GNU years the nation must go after the thieves but
also those who turned a blind eye to the thievery. For once, I have to applaud
MDC-T spokesman, Obert Gutu, for saying something sensible. What a pity he and
his fellow MDC friends “were busy enjoying themselves and forgot why they were
in the GNU”, as SADC heads have said; the nation would have never been robbed
blind in the first place!
Richard
Morgan Tsvangirai, Prime Minister of the Republic of Zimbabwe, and friend were
honoured guests on this modern day Titanic
A call to thorough investigate the murders, plunder and looting that has gone on and on in Marange and Chiadzwa has to be sweet music to every thinking Zimbabwean out there. We will all hang our heads in shame at the scale of the looting and that it has gone on unchecked for all these years.
ReplyDeleteNo stone must be left unturned in the search for all those involved in this grand theft; as much as possible of the looted wealth must be recovered and given back to the people and those responsible must be punished!
As long as we allow the looting taking place in Marange to continue the whole world will never raise a finger to help up with food, drugs and all the other basic necessities of life people lack. How can we expect anyone to help when they know our President is getting $2 billion a year from the looting and plunder of diamonds and we, the people, have done nothing to stop it
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