Zimbabwe sets up diamonds whistle blowers fund

Zimbabwe sets up diamonds whistle blowers fund

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By Torby Chimhashu in Bulawayo

ZIMBABWE'S central bank has unveiled a whistle blowers' fund aimed at disrupting leakages and smuggling of precious minerals.

Gideon Gono, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, announced the fund while unveiling his monetary policy statement in Bulawayo where he is attending an annual trade fair.

He said the fund, which will come into full force Friday, has been necessitated by the continued spate of leakages of precious minerals including gold and diamonds, threatening the performance of the economy.

"It has become necessary that the Reserve Bank resuscitates the whistle blowers programme for gold and diamonds under which the whistle blowers will be paid 5% of the value of actual prosecuted recoveries from their reported cases.

"To complement the envisaged benefits of the whistle blowers programme, the Reserve Bank is deepening its Anti-Money Laundering and Exchange Control Inspectorate arms to ensure the illegal parallel market activities are sufficiently dealt with," Gono said.

Gono revealed that gold continued to under perform, registering a total of 2.24 tonnes during the first quarter of 2007 - representing a decline of 19%, on the 2.76 tonnes registered over the same period in 2006.

He attributed the fall in output to combined effects of viability problems and rampant smuggling which he said has put a dent on "what traditionally stood as the country's reserve asset of last resort."

Several top government officials and civil servants have been implicated in the smuggling of diamonds in Chiadzwa area, Marange, where diamond deposits where unearthed towards the end of 2006.

High ranking cabinet ministers and security agents have been named as some of the people behind the smuggling of diamonds, although no arrests and prosecutions have been made.

In a joint operation involving police and the Central Intelligenc Organisation (CIO), the RBZ has unearthed gold rackets and syndicates in small towns involving Zanu PF legislators and businessmen.

Since the turn of the year, police have nabbed nearly 32 000 people -- but none of the implicated government officers -- in a blitz code-named Chikorokoza Chapera, casting doubts the government's seriousness to curb the plunder of minerals.

Police recovered 3,6kg of gold and 7 868 diamonds since the blitz was launched in November.

Only one notable Zanu PF official, William Nhara, was arrested after he tried to smuggle diamonds worth US$130 000 out of the country through the Harare International Airport.

Nhara, who is the Zanu PF Harare province spokesman, is out on bail.

Zimbabwe is losing between US$40-US$50 million every week through the smuggling of precious minerals, especially gold, said Gono.

In February, a Harare magistrate was arrested together with seven others in Mhangura where they were allegedly panning for gold.

A week later, police raided a house belonging to Zimbabwe Defence Industries boss, retired Colonel Tshinga Dube, and arrested his son who was released on bail.
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