THE Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) board, chaired by Godwills Masimirembwa, has been accused of stealing Core Mining and Mineral Resource’s dividends worth over $3, 4 million which the latter was supposed to receive from Marange Resources diamond firm.
Report by Charles Laiton
The allegation were made yesterday by former Canadile finance manager, now Marange Resources financial executive, Simbisai Wilfred Munemo, during cross-examination by Core Mining director Lovemore Kurotwi’s lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa.
Core Mining used to jointly run Canadile Miners together with Marange Resources. The High Court heard that Core Mining’s cash apparently disappeared sometime in October 2010 after ZMDC issued a directive to have the money deposited into its account without special reasons, raising concerns over the operations of the parastatal. Mtetwa asked Munemo if the dividends of Canadile Miners, a now defunct diamond mining joint venture between Core Mining and Marange Resources, were paid according to his records.
“As of the first sale, the dividend of over $10 million was paid equally to both firms, but as for the second sale, the money was withheld and used by ZMDC,” Munemo said.
Munemo also told High Court judge Justice Chinembiri Bhunu that since the beginning of the diamond operations by the parastatal in 2009, its financial records had not been audited. As the head of the financial department of the diamond firm, Munemo, however, said he had no knowledge of the diamond production records, but would most of the times simply work with figures forwarded to him.
In a brief judgment over documents to be produced by the State, Justice Bhunu said his earlier judgment over the matter would still stand. But contrary to the court’s ruling, Munemo said he had more documents that he had not supplied to the State.
Kurotwi and his co-accused, Dominic Mubaiwa, are being accused of causing the government to suffer a $2 billion potential prejudice in investment after the formation of the diamond mining joint venture.
