Zimbabwe Diamonds and Allied Workers Union (ZIDAWU) has called for government to stop diamond mining operations in Marange to help curb the spreading of coronavirus.
263 Chat reports quoted ZIDAWU as saying that there had been reports of Covid-19 positive cases at the state-owned Zimbabwe Diamond Consolidated Company (ZCDC) and Anjin operations.
“…as workers representatives and community monitors we recommend that the government instructs operations to halt at Zimbabwe Diamond Consolidated Company and Anjin with immediate effect,” ZIDAWU said.
“This recommendation is necessitated by the recent reports of Covid-19 positive cases at the two companies. In as much as we understand that mining is an economic driver and necessary for the operations to continue, nothing can justify the limitation of the right to life guaranteed in the constitution of Zimbabwe that is threated in [Marange].”
Anjin is, however, said to have halted operations on 15 August on its portals.
The company’s management were non-comittal when approached by the local media.
Employees who spoke on condition of anonymity said they were living in fear of the coronavirus and they had been banned from using mobile phones to communicate with outsiders.
They were allegedly living in squalid conditions with poor sanitation.
Anjin officially resumed full-scale mining operations in Marange recently after it was barred from the diamond fields in 2016 by the then adminstration of the late President Robert Mugabe.
Zimbabwe produced 2.1 million carats in 2019 valued at $141.1 million, according to the latest data released by the Kimberley Process.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
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