The Great Lakes Research Journal

The Zimbabwe high court has recently approved the sale of diamonds from an area  troubled beset by human rights abuses, as Harrare moved to defy the Kimberley Process.

The selling of the Marange diamonds belonging to Consolidated Resoucres, a British-owned African Resources Process, was banned last year by the international regulator. The selling was blocked after it was found that Zimbabwe had failed to comply with human rights standards.

Harare initially stopped the sale pending authorization from local officials and the Kimberly Process. This process was set up to prevent the sale of “blood diamonds”, which are used to fund rebel movements.

But on Tuesday the Herald Newspaper reported that the high court approved the sale of 129,000 carats of diamonds of which belong to African  Consolidated Resources (ACR).

Mines Minister, Obert Mpofu, restated Harare’s determination to defy the Kimberly Process, even with Zimbabwe being a member of the group. He said “We are going to benefit from our diamonds whether with the Kimberly Process or not.” He also claimed the “country’s detractors” were using the process in order to block Zimbabwe from benefiting from the sales. Mpofu said the government will comply with the high court.

He also went on say that

“This is what the country has been waiting for. These resources belong to the people of Zimbabwe. These people (Westerners) have clearly taken their sanctions agenda to another level.”

Mpofu could not say when the sale will take place but indicates that police will investigate ACR management for buying diamonds on the black market. He said the country has a stock of 300,000 carats of diamonds that were mined by two firms contracted by the Mirange government. Last year, the government entered into a joint venture with two South African firms to mine diamonds in Marange.

Mpofu also said:

“We cannot keep or store another 129,000 carats of diamonds, but we are going to ask the police to find out why a public listed company like ACR was buying diamonds from artisanal miners.”

Back in February, the supreme court ordered the two government firms to cease operations on the CR fields. The case was brought to court by ACR in an effort to win back its mining rights. Since the suspension in 2006, the government of Zimbabwe and and London-owned ACR have been in a legal dispute over the ownership of the fields.

A Kimberley Process investigator visited the country in March to determine if human rights standards were being met in the Marange diamond fields. He found that standards were not being met and Zimbabwe has given until June to fix the abuses.

In a press conference given by an adviser to President Ali Bongo late on Thursday, Gabon, Africa’s seventh largest oil producer, stated they will create a national petroleum company to own and manage the country’s stakes in oil fields.  ”The national petroleum company will consolidate all government positions and with these revenues invest in creating value-added production facilities,” the adviser told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. “By the end of the year, it will be fully legally ready.”

Presently oil companies in Gabon, which produce around 250,000 barrels per day,  include Total and Shell, and the government holds stakes in Gabonese oil fields.  However, the new firm will group together and manage their revenues.  ”The oil companies have been told. They have been waiting for this, not just a political counterpart but a business and technical counterpart,” he said.

The company will operate along the same guidelines of Sonangol, Angola’s national oil firm and the GNPC in Ghana, which severe as a “successful model” of a national oil firm.  Currently, the nation relies on crude oil output for about 2/3 of its income, and ships around half of its total production to refineries stateside and in western Europe.  President Bongo, who was elected last August, has made diversifying the economy to lessen its dependence on oil revenue a policy priority.

Archaeologists have recently unearthed several hundred ancient bronze coins near Qarun Lake in the Fayoum Oasis southwest of the Egyptian capital, Cairo.  Officials have stated the coins feature a depiction of the god Amun on one side, while the other side shows the words “king” and “Ptolemy” in Greek, and they date back to the reign of King Ptolemy, who ruled Egypt about 2,300 years ago.  In addition to the coins, the team also discovered necklaces made of ostrich eggshells during the dig.

At the same time, the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass has renewed his attacks on museums worldwide that he says have refused to return artifacts that rightfully belong to Egypt.  While giving a speech at a preview of a King Tut exhibition in New York, Hawass said Egypt will fight to get the items back.  Hawass’ wish list of items he wants returned from foreign museums currently includes the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum and a bust of Queen Nefertiti in the Neues Museum in Berlin.

Two South African anti-corruption police officers have earned themselves an unbelievable amount of respect after rejecting a two million rand ($270,000 US dollars) bribe offer from a local drug dealer.

The two officers were offered the money with half upfront in cash upon arresting an alleged drug dealer in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.

In an ironic twist, not only did the police offers refuse the bribe, they also added another charge against the drug dealer on the suspect charge sheet of bribery. The man was found with a bag containing 150,000 Mandrax tablets at a warehouse where the police had set up a stake out and been watching from a distance.

It has yet to be established as to whether these two officers would be given a special reward by the government after refusing to take what was said to be five times more than their annual salary to let the man walk away freely. 

Recent reports show that South Africa has arguably become one of the most corrupt prone states on the continent of Africa.

Many high ranking officials in South Africa have been accused of taking bribes. The former head of Police, Jackie Selebi, is currently in court due to charges of corruption in several bribery cases involving millions of rands. Current President, Jacob Zuma has also been surrounded by accusations of corruption for his connections with a convicted criminal who was recenty released in a very controversial medical parole.