Zimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe is expected to soon face tough questions from some of the country’s lawmakers.
The Chairperson of the Zimbabwean parliamentary committee on Mines and Energy, Temba Mliswa, wants Mugabe to answer questions relating to his 2016 claim that Zimbabwe lost $15 billion in income from the Marange diamond fields due to corruption and foreign exploitation.
The Mugabe administration has been accused of siphoning diamond profits and Mliswa says he wants Mugabe to explain how he came up with the $15 billion figure since he was president at the time.
It will be the first time Mugabe will be expected to account for his actions during his near four-decade rule of the country before being ousted in a military take over last November.
Although no date has been set for Robert Mugabe to testify, it is unclear if the 94-year-old former leader will be forced to face grilling from the lawmakers.
A number of former and serving top officials in government and the security services have appeared before the same committee to answer questions regarding the “missing” diamonds.
“My point is that we are not witch-hunting; we are actually trying to get institutions to respond to the 15 billion dollar leakage in terms of diamonds”, Mliswa said. “When we have received all the evidence we will deliberate on it, but in terms of him coming we had resolved that we will invite everybody.”
Zimbabwe’s vast diamond wealth has been largely squandered through mismanagement and corruption.
International NGO, Global Witness, last year in a report accused Zimbabwean leaders of diverting profits from diamond mining for years to fund the crackdown on their political opponents.
The NGO also indicated that the Zimbabwean secret service has quietly held shares in a company that mines diamonds in the Marange mine.
