By Talent Gondo | Former President Robert Mugabe’s statement alleging that the country lost USD15 billion in diamond looting was misplaced and is not true, the parliamentary portfolio committee  on Mines and Energy chaired by Temba Mliswa heard today.Godwills Masimirembwa, the former ZMDC Board Chairperson claimed that during his tenure as the organisation’s chairperson, from June 2010 to May 2013, there was no way that the country could have realised such an amount of revenue from diamond proceeds.

“Wherever he (Mugabe), got the evidence from that the country lost USD15 billion through missing diamonds, I would be happy to get that information,” said Masimirembwa.

“Until I see it, because from what I know and what I saw, there was no USD15 billion worth of diamonds that could have gone missing.”

Masimirembwa queried where the former head of state got the figure, adding that it is impossible that the country would have realised such an amount from alluvial diamonds.

“How did he (Mugabe) make the computation especially when there was chaos in Marange?” he queried, acknowledging that while there were a lot of illegal activities going on when diamonds were discovered in Marange, during his tenure as board chairperson at ZMDC, there was a lot of security making it impossible for such a huge leakage.

“Maybe the former president was using it figuratively. There is no way Zimbabwe sold diamonds worth USD15 billion because the gem quality is just above 10 percent when we compare it to diamonds from other countries in the region and globally,” he said.

Masimirembwa argued that the country’s gems are industrial hence are of a much lower value compared to diamonds from neighbouring Namibia, South Africa or Angola.

“The average price that we are getting per carat, which I don’t think exceeds USD 100 makes it impossible for us to realise such revenue from diamond sales. Unless maybe if we go into kimberlite mining, then maybe we could be at Namibia’s levels which I know can sometimes realise USD 3 billion from diamond sales,” he added.

Responding to whether he was in any way related to the Home Affairs minister, Obert Mpofu considering that he is appointed on boards which are directly linked to him, Masimirembwa refuted the claims adding that his relationship with Mpofu was purely professional.

“I am not in any way related to minister Mpofu neither is he my friend. I know him from our party Zanu Pf and I have only been to his house twice, when his mother died and when there was a party,” he said.

When Mpofu was Mines minister, Masimirembwa was appointed as Chair of ZMDC.

It is also ironic that when Mpofu headed the Transport ministry, Masimirembwa landed the CMED board chairmanship post.

The former ZMDC chairperson also refuted allegations that he pocketed USD6 million from illegal diamond dealings adding that Mugabe confirmed that he had been lied to when he made the allegations.

“The former president, Mugabe sent investigators who confirmed that I was not given any money and was Innocent,” he said.