Former executives of Mbada Diamonds told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Energy that they lost diamonds worth millions of dollars to the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP). The executives said the diamonds were looted when around 200 ZRP officers raided the company’s premises in 2016.
David Kassel, chairperson of Grandwell Holdings which owns 50 percent shareholding in Mbada Diamonds said:
Police arrived at the mine armed, abused our people, ransacked the place, operated like cowboys, broke our company safes, destroyed our equipment, broke our fence and all cellphones were taken into a room like they were criminals. They broke our safes, took our diamonds.
Mbada Diamond’s chief security officer Jabulani Mkoko added,
The police rushed into the control room and switched off the CCTV and the communication systems. When I realised that we are not making any headway, I said before I remove any of our workers, can we go to all the vaults then I can show what is there, literally they refused a handover-takeover in written form…After about a month when the ministry indicated to us that they were opening a window period for us to remove goods and as soon as I went into the vault, there was an empty box. I discovered the breaking in…yet police were deployed to guard the vaults.
More: Daily News
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