AFRICA/ZIMBABWE - The “factory for poverty” exporting diamonds

Harare (Agenzia Fides) - “Zimbabwe has become a factory for poverty,” says a local newspaper. Over 75 percent of the people in crisis-riddled Zimbabwe are living in desperate poverty, with children bearing the brunt. A report released by Save the Children (SCF) found that 10 out of the 13 million people still in Zimbabwe live in abject poverty, struggling to access food and other essentials.
The state is collapsing. 75 percent of state schools are not functioning properly because the majority of state teachers either do not receive a salary or it is insufficient. A conflict has broken out among the poor in the effort to claim the few resources available, while the cholera epidemic continues counting victims (not to mention the AIDS epidemic).
All this goes on while the country continues to be blocked by a dangerous political situation following the failure of talks between President Robert Mugabe and the opposition (see Fides 20/1/2009). While the poor continue to sink deeper into poverty, a small section of Zimbabwe's elite continue to access foreign currency at official exchange rates from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, which they then use for mostly illegal deals like buying and reselling cars, and dealing in gold and diamonds.
This is why the government sent soldiers to guard the diamond mine of Chiadzwa, in the eastern part of the nation, to safeguard it from illegal miners. Now, the soldiers themselves extract diamonds and sell them on the black market. Thus, an economy of dealership has been established, which is also taken advantage of by the South African border-town of Musina, where dealers go to buy and sell diamonds. The trafficking involves officials and soldiers, all of whom receive miserly pay and consider the robbery of the diamonds as a form of “pay.” This also impedes soldier uprisings from leading to a revolt or military coups.
The Zimbabwean diamonds run the risk of ending up on the black list in the “Kimberly Process,” the system of international certification aimed at impeding diamonds from war zones from entering the legal market. The Chiadzwa diamonds have been found in South Africa, Lebanon, and Russia. (LM) (Agenzia Fides 21/1/2009)