Mutare, Zimbabwe – a 35 year-old man caught with 14 uncut diamonds has just been sentenced to an unprecedented five year sentence.  Powerman Mupeta, from Dangamvura, is the first person to be sentenced to prison time for carrying uncertified diamonds since the discovery of diamonds at the now-infamous Chiadzwa mine.

Mupeta was arrested in May of 2008 after being found in possession of 61.58 carats of diamond weight.  The value has not been released, as it depends on the clarity of the stones once they are cut and polished.  The diamonds were discovered when Mupeta and a friend were pulled over as a part of a routine police patrol.  Speaking for the State, Nelson Makunyire explained that, “Sergeant Munyanga then searched Mupeta and his colleague.  He recovered 14 pieces of rough diamonds weighing 61.58 carats in Mupeta’s trousers pockets and arrested him.”

The Regional Magistrate found Mupeta guilty of possessing diamonds without a license.  Prior to and since the trial, several much more high-profile diamond dealers have been arrested with the same charges, but acquitted under what some have called “suspicious circumstances”.   Most of these same people are still dealing in diamonds, but much more discreetly.  The ones that are still out of jail and in business have all been seen socially interacting with members of the Mugabe-controlled police force and military, who have been in control of the Chiadzwa mine since they massacred hundreds of people there late last year.

Prior to the government seizure of the mine, dealers were allowed to search for diamonds there.  Without proper channels to sell the diamonds, and without Kimberley Process certificates, these dealers have had two directions to go: paying off the government and letting them help you smuggle the diamonds out for a fee, or go to jail.

Or worse.  Last year, soldiers beat Maxwell Mabota, a Mutare businessman, to death after he was caught inside the mine.

Only large diamond corporations are able to secure an area to make sure that any diamonds found are done so without any human rights violations.  With the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation ill-equipped to handle the volume of diamonds at Chiadzwa, other miners began moving in.  Because it can be costly to pay miners a reasonable wage and it can be time-consuming to listen to their complaints about conditions, the ZMDC found it easier to let control of the tremendously prolific Chiadzwa mine go to the hands President Robert Mugabe and his soldiers.  After the massacre of December 2008, Mugabe was able to use his contacts to smuggle many of the diamonds out illegally, reporting only some of them to be certified. 

This way, the estimated 500 syndicates handling more than $1 billion/month in diamonds working out of the Chiadzwa mine are able to make much more off of their finds, and the government gets a piece of it.  Because Zimbabwe is not, technically, “at war”, the diamonds from Chiadzwa are still not considered “conflict diamonds”.  Nonetheless, even with the capacity to get UN approval and Kimberley Process certificates, it is simply more costly.  It is easier and cheaper to smuggle them.

And who pays the price?  A guy driving down the street with 14 rocks in his pocket.

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