By Alex Bell
18 February 2010
The Supreme Court has ordered the government to stop mining operations at the controversial Chiadzwa diamond fields, amid an ongoing ownership wrangle over the claim.
Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku ordered the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation and the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe to cease operations at the claim, which legally belongs to the UK based mining firm Africa Consolidated Resources (ACR). This means the firm Mbada mining, that has been mining under state authorisation, must stop operations, although it is allowed to remain on sight pending a court solution to the ownership debate.
“The balance of convenience favours the applicants (ZMDC and MMCZ) remaining on the site of the claims pending appeal, but they must cease all mining activities and it is so ordered,” said Chief Justice Chidyausiku in the judgment made available on Wednesday.
ACR, which holds the legal title to the diamond claim in Chiadzwa was evicted at gunpoint from the claim in 2006; a move that a High Court judge last year ruled was illegal. The government has appealed this ruling, and in the interim Chief Justice Chidyausiku ordered the transferral of more than 129 000 carats of diamonds to the central bank for ‘safe keeping’. Those diamonds were seized by police two weeks ago, apparently acting on orders by Mines Minister Obert Mpofu.
It’s understood that Minister Mpofu had tried to stop the diamonds being transported to the central bank, by producing a letter from the registrar of the Supreme Court, Nomonde Mazabane. The letter detailed that the court order to move the diamonds did not necessarily include all the diamonds mined from the Chiadzwa claim, and that the order had been reversed. But Harare’s deputy sheriff, tasked with enforcing the orders of the court, refused to accept the terms of the letter and the diamond transfer continued.
The gems were finally transferred in three strong boxes and under a heavy police guard to the central bank. But while the stones were being registered, a senior police official overseeing the process halted procedures and removed the gems. He reportedly said “there have been new developments,” and that the registrar’s letter was ‘true’.
In the full judgment explaining his orders Chief Justice Chidyausiku said the letter written by the Registrar of the Supreme Court “informing the concerned parties of the court’s intention to give reasons for the order of January 25,” should not be misinterpreted as reversing the order. He said such as interpretation was the “height of mischief.”
The Chief Justice explained that the removal of the diamonds from the central bank was ‘unlawful and contemptuous’.
“If anyone has removed the diamonds from the Reserve Bank, he has done so unlawfully and in contempt of the order of this court. The diamonds must be returned to RBZ immediately in order to purge the contempt. Failure to do so should attract serious consequences,” he added.
| 