Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Group (Afecc), the
company that invested at the Chiadzwa diamond fields through its subsidiary,
Anjin, has claimed it incurred heavy losses on its investment despite
unverified allegations from local people that they were among foreign firms
which plundered the country’s gemstones.
Speaking to NewsDay last week, Afecc vice-president Tian
ShiYue said despite the negative reports, the project was a complete failure
because they did not get a return on what they invested.
ShiYue said every company that invests in a foreign country
wanted a return, but in Zimbabwe their two diamond mines were closed down
resulting in them making losses.
Anjin and Jinan had a joint venture with the Zimbabwe
Defence Forces and were closed for not remitting taxes. “Every country that invests in a foreign land wants a
return, but in Zimbabwe on two diamond mine projects we have not received a
return on what we invested,” ShiYue said.
Former President Robert Mugabe once claimed that some
corrupt politicians, in connivance with the Chinese and other investors, looted
diamond worth US$15 billion from Chiadzwa, leaving the country broke.
“We have not received much from the diamond industry at
all. Not much by way of earnings. I don’t think we have exceeded $2 billion or
so and yet we think that well over 15 or more billion (United States) dollars
have been earned in that area,” Mugabe said during his birthday interview in
2016.
“So where have our carats been going? The gems? You see,
there has been quite a lot of secrecy in handling them and we have been blinded
ourselves. That means our people who we expected to be our eyes and ears have
not been able to see or hear what was going on and lots of swindling, smuggling
has taken place and the companies that have been mining have virtually, I want
to say, robbed us of our wealth.”
He added: “That is why we have decided that this area
should be a monopoly area and only the State should be able to do the mining in
that area.”
This led to the closure of all private mines in the area by
Mugabe, but ShiYue said there was nothing like that, insisting the closure
breached the investment protection pact between China and Zimbabwe. She said
they were hopeful of resuming operations at the projects under President
Emmerson Mnangagwa’s new dispensation.
“The closure of the mine had already breached the
China-Zimbabwe business investment protection. We do not want to lose when the
government changes policies like what the current Minister of Finance (Mthuli
Ncube) did,” ShiYue said.
The Afecc vice-president said although they were given a
go-ahead by the Mnangagwa administration to proceed with the diamond project,
the economic situation in Zimbabwe was not good at the moment.
“The economic environment is not good in Zimbabwe at the
moment. Our diamond project was closed and we made a loss, we now need new
resources to invest and we hope the new government attracts investment. But
even if we invest today and the profits cannot go to China, then you have to
forget that we will invest soon,” ShiYue further said.
“The other issue is investors want a stable currency and
tax regime. We do not want a situation where taxes will be changed mid stream
before we have even recouped our investment. This prevailing economic climate
is a challenge. The perception that we looted anything is unfounded at all.”
ShiYue told NewsDay that before they were booted out of
Chiadzwa, they had built more than 427 houses for the displaced villagers.
Afecc has projects in more than 20 countries that include
Madagascar and Mozambique, among others. Newsday
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