Mutare, Zimbabwe - Villagers relocated to a sprawling government-owned farm complex in eastern Zimbabwe to make way for the nation’s biggest diamond field hope President Robert Mugabe’s move to take control of the resource will benefit them.
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More than 1 000 families were moved in 2009 from a village adjacent to the Chiadzwa diamond field in Marange to Arda Transau, a 12 000 hectare farm settlement with promises of a better life.
Arda Transau was billed as a new township with tarred roads, shops and health clinics – but seven years later the villagers said they had yet to see the promised education and health facilities.
Robbing
Seven mining companies licenced to mine the area were ordered in March to leave by Mugabe who accused them of robbing Zimbabwe of wealth. Mugabe took over all diamond operations in the newly formed Zimbabwe Consolidation Diamond Company (ZCDC).
Some of the affected diamond firms have since taken the government to court with the issue still pending.
While Mugabe’s move could further tarnish the country’s image as a risky investment, the relocated villagers were hoping it would help them.
Caiphas Mujuru is one of the Arda Transau residents lobbying the government to get ZCDC to address the problems faced by the villagers who are facing severe food shortages.
“Life is really difficult here,” Mujuru told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “We had been promised honey and milk here, but it is now a nightmare for us.”
When the villagers were moved, each family was given $1 000 (about R15 201) in compensation and a four-room house, but these new dwellings had since developed cracks. Families were promised 11ha of arable land including 1ha for irrigation to run a small piggery or poultry projects but this never happened, the villagers said.
Their plight had been exacerbated by the El Niño induced drought that decimated the nation’s crops, leaving 4 million people in a population of 14 million without adequate food supplies.
The villagers had the chance to voice their concerns at the Alternative Mining Indaba conference in Mutare this month, comprising civic society, communities and stakeholders in the mining sector and legislators promised to help.
“We will take your concerns to the Minister of Mines (Walter Chidhakwa),” said Prosper Mutseyami, the legislator for the Musikavanhu constituency in Chipinge district.
Fulfilled
However, the diamond companies maintained that they fulfilled what they were expected to do. Anjin Investments, a joint venture between the government and Chinese investors, said it had complied with the law when it came to the relocation of the villagers.
“We did everything required by the law,” said Anjin Investments’ chief executive Munyaradzi Machacha.
In an interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, Chidhakwa said local people should not feel they were forgotten. He said the Manicaland Provincial Affairs Minister, Mandi Chimene, would work with the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare to provide social and food assistance to the villagers.
But James Mupfumi, who heads the Centre for Research and Development, a local non-governmental investigative organisation, is sceptical.
“It is disheartening… that the Mines Minister has already visited Arda Transau for (ZCDC) to relocate more villagers to Arda Transau without addressing previous community grievances,” he said.
REUTERS