Chiadzwa: Model for Africa, beyond

indigenisation.
During the workshop, the Ministry of Finance released very useful figures on revenue accrued from all minerals mined in Zimbabwe. On a comparative basis, the figures vividly revealed that Zimbabwe is collecting more revenue from the Chiadzwa diamonds than from any other minerals found in the country.
Figures released by the ministry revealed that diamond mining companies at Marange declared a US$150 million dividend to the Government in 2011. For 2012, Government is expecting to receive US$640 million in dividends from the diamond operations.
Dishearteningly, a lesser sum amounting to a mere US$190 million in royalties is expected from the exploitation of all other minerals in the country.
In terms of contribution to Treasury, it is actually amazing that the recently commissioned and sanctions-burdened mineral operations in Marange would outperform a host of all other mining operations established way back during the colonial era. Questions will naturally arise as to why the long established mines are not only failing to contribute significantly to the fiscus but are also evasive when it comes to tax and royalty payments.
The answer squarely lies in the shareholding matrixes in these mines. While the rest of the mines are privately, if not foreign owned, those at Chiadzwa are fully controlled by Government. Of the three viable diamond mines at Chiadzwa, Government wholly owns Marange Resources and has a 51percent shareholding in both Mbada and Anjin.
Those mines that are on the leash of such foreign entities as Anglo-America, Rio Tinto, and Implats are dutifully obliged to offload a lion’s share of their earnings in dividends to foreign capitals leaving negligible crumbs for the local people through negligible royalties and taxes. Antithetically, in addition to royalties and taxes, government also earns dividends from operations at Chiadzwa. This provides a significant flow of revenue into the nation’s coffers thus buttressing the ongoing efforts to resuscitate the nascent economy.
It becomes indubitable therefore that mining money lies in dividends and not royalties. One cannot therefore help but wonder if it is not strategic for the country to deliberately adopt the Chiadzwa mining template as a congenial and workable model for the rest of other mining operations in the country.
If the country is to take full charge of its resources and account for their value, then the Chiadzwa operations become an inescapable model worth replicating in all mines dotted around the country. If Zimbabwe is to be salvaged from the present economic hiccups, government should urgently implement a deliberate policy to acquire majority shares in all mines currently controlled from foreign capitals.
Such a dispensation would ensure that all our minerals are safely exploited for the benefit of local people in line with the indigenisation and empowerment exercise. The arrangement would securely place all our mineral resources under our revolutionary foothold and hence forestall any disempowering antics by some greedy foreign investors.
The Chiadzwa experience also puts to shame some misguided claims by adversaries of indigenisation that the programme is inimical to the interests of foreign investors. If it really jeopardises the interests of these investors, how then are the Chinese, South African and Indian companies partnering Zimbabweans in Marange managing to break even and award commendable dividends to the country.
The truth of the matter is that there is nothing sinister about the indigenisation programme, its incompatibility to foreign investments is only seen by the jaundiced eyes of those who want to safeguard the interests of the hegemonic Western investors.
Mining operations in Chiadzwa are an embodiment of the success of the indigenisation programme. They are a telling testimony that the programme does not endanger the interests of the investor but simply seek to balance such interests with those of the local people.
Companies operating in Chiadzwa have also managed to provide another model when they successfully and decently relocate families affected by their operations. The relocation at Arda Transau is a model of an urbanised village. It has electricity, treated water, tarred roads and all the infrastructural accessories associated with the urban areas.
The houses are what most of us yearn to build during our working lives but fail to due to inadequate earnings yet the Marange companies had managed to avail them to the villagers in their lifetime.
However, in exchange for the rich morsels of wealth they are relentlessly scooping out of the bowels of our country, other long established mines have dismally failed to provide such kind of accommodation or service to their workers or worse still their surrounding communities.
Condescendingly, all they have managed to offer are sub-standard or is it sub human compounds for their workers with no electricity, water and any other such basic paraphernalia.

l Tendai Moyo is a Harare-based social commentator.