Govt bars Chiadzwa trust from gem indaba Members claim backlash over ‘shady’ US$400m ZCDC deal

GOVERNMENT barred leaders of a community group fighting to block the proposed Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Corporation (ZCDC) purchase of a 33% shareholding in Great Dyke Investments (GDI) from attending a crucial conference in Victoria Falls last week, allegedly as backlash for standing their ground against the deal which they see as murky.

e proposed deal would see ZCDC paying GDI about US$400 million for the stake, while the money could be used to fund its stalled Darwendale platinum mining project.

But the Chiadzwa Community Share

Ownership Trust (CCSOT), which represents grassroots interests in the diamonds operation, have raised conflict of interest issues around the big transaction, which has already seen ZCDC chief executive officer (CEO) Mark Mabhudhu suspended.

CCSOT had dispatched its CEO, Hardwork Mukwada and Newman Chiadzwa, a member of its board of trustees, to represent the community at the meeting.

In letters submitted to the Office of the President and Cabinet last month, the CCSOT demanded answers on the deal.

It raised issues over ZCDC chairperson, Munashe Shava, who it claimed was conflicted because he is also chief operating officer at GDI.

GDI is desperate for capital after Russian

investors, Vi Holdings, pulled out of the US$3 billion Darwendale platinum project in Mashonaland West, which has since stalled as a result.

Billed as Zimbabwe’s biggest platinum mine, when it was launched, the project experienced delays in raising funds, while sanctions on Russia imposed by the West after Russia invaded Ukraine last year, forced Vi Holdings to withdraw from the project.

It ceded its 47,8% stake to local partners, Kuvimba Mining House and Fossil.

Reports suggest that Shava proposed the ZCDC funding deal and that Finance minister Mthuli Ncube authorised it.

However, the CCSOT sees the deal as a scheme to use community’s funds to bail out GDI principals, Kuvimba and Fossil who seem to have failed to raise funds to kickstart the platinum project.

The Zimbabwe Independent can exclusively report that the standoff deteriorated last week, when government labelled CCSOT executives “security threats” and prevented them from entering the first key sessions of the African Diamond Producers Association (ADPA) meeting of experts in Victoria Falls.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa gave a keynote address at the meeting, at which Zimbabwe assumed the ADPA chair.

Previously, CCSOT members had attended ADPA meetings courtesy of ZCDC as stakeholders. The move, according to CCSOT insiders, was “punishment for their resolve to reject the transaction”.

The dramatic events are contained in correspondence between the CCSOT and Mines and Mining Development minister Winston Chitando which have been obtained by the Independent.

In the letter to Chitando, the CCSOT said Mercy Manyuchi, the chief director in the Mines ministry, was among those who barred them.

“Mukwada and Chiadzwa were illtreated and abused …,” excerpts of the letter gleaned by this publication read.

“From March 19 to 23, the two were continuously tossed from the ministry of mines to ZCDC in evident orchestrated strategies to bar them from attending the ADPA conference sessions despite these two having taken care of their finances wholly to attend the conference.

“This was a deplorable ‘hiding behind a finger’. As the secretariat of the host community (we) are not pleased. We do not expect such kind of unprofessional behaviour to come from high-ranking officials.”

As ADPA, a grouping of 19 African diamond-producing countries met, Mukwada was subsequently removed from a Zimbabwe Kimberley Process (KP) WhatsApp forum, the letter claimed.

The CCSOT officials said “Manyuchi was involved in the removal of Mukwada from the forum”.

“In the worst-case scenario, the two members of the community secretariat had their accreditation intercepted by Manyuchi who, according to the report given to us by the accreditation team, were labelled as a ‘security threat to His Excellency (Mnangagwa),” the letter reads.

This was interpreted by us as an attempt to incriminate our presence at ADPA and attach us to a treasonous offence to create excuses to have us arrested and detained for the unfounded security threat allegation.”

Mukwada claimed that government’s move to shut them out of ADPA was punishment for: “the red card which we have raised as a community in objection to the scandalous anti-community … ZCDC/ Great Dyke Investments share purchase transaction.”

Yesterday, Manyuchi advised that she had forwarded questions posed to her by the Independent to Mines ministry permanent secretary Pfungwa Kunaka.

Both Chitando and Kunaka had not responded to the Independent’s inquiries at the time of going to the press yesterday.

The Independent was also told that CCSOT was seeking approval to stage a demonstration against the ZCDC-GDI deal.

At the time of going to print, organisers of the planned protest had not confirmed whether they had secured the green light to do so.

Last month, the CCSOT wrote to OPC, parliament and the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission requesting that the deal be stopped.

Evolving dynamics linked to the controversial deal show that upon being suspended by the ZCDC board, Mabhudhu was literally placed “under house arrest.”

He was ordered not to leave his place of residence for more than three hours.

The CCSOT has also written to the World Diamond Council, raising its grievances.

As reported by the Independent, details of the proposed deal show that the US$400 million transaction was primarily going to be reinvested into developing GDI’s US$3 billion platinum project.

The suspended Mabhudhu had also blocked moves to appoint BancABC as transaction advisors after the financial institution billed ZCDC US$24 million.

In documents seen by this publication, the under-fire executive had argued that ZCDC was not in a position to pay anything above US$300 000 to BancABC for their advisory services.

The same documents also show that BancABC had been selected without going to public tender as stipulated by regulations.

Before his suspension, Mabhudhu had travelled to Thailand on official business after securing Cabinet approval to do so where he received a Global African of the Year for 2023 award.