ZIMBABWE Diamond College (ZDC) owner, Lovemore Kurotwi, is bitter over government’s decision to seek diamond cutting and polishing expertise from China, when his institution was offering the same services.
BY Everson Mushava
In a letter dated July 14 this year addressed to Mines secretary, Francis Gudyanga, Kurotwi questioned government’s sincerity in empowering indigenous businesses when it had the guts to ignore local entrepreneurs and seek similar services abroad.
“We feel you have turned a blind eye to the local industry and are behaving as if the local industry does not exist,” reads part of Kurotwi’s letter, copied to Mines minister Walter Chidakwa.
“Our Mines ministry had time to fly all the way to China to see the technology in Chinese factories, yet they cannot spare just a few minutes to visit local cutting and polishing companies, which the ministry itself has licensed.
“Our graduates, who have been absorbed by these local companies are now redundant due to lack of support from your ministry.
“We complain as a country of a serious liquidity crunch, yet our own government fails to promote the local industry.”
Kurotwi also blasted government for snubbing his request for 15 000 carats of diamonds to facilitate training programmes at his college.
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He said he was concerned that government made a decision to allocate 10 000 carats of diamonds annually for three years to the Chinese company training 25 Zimbabweans in diamond cutting and polishing, when his diamond training college was struggling to access the precious stones.
President Robert Mugabe recently saw off a group of Zimbabweans to China to train in diamond cutting and polishing. In return, the country pledged to provide the Chinese company with diamonds for training purposes.
ZDC, formed five years ago, is the only licensed institution that offers diamond cutting and polishing training in the country.
