‘Broken houses and promises: residents still in poverty near massive diamond project’ 24 October 2022

More than 14 years after being forcibly relocated from their ancestral villages to make way for mining in one of the world’s largest diamond-producing projects, residents of Arda Transau in Eastern Zimbabwe are still living in dire poverty. Across the 567-kilometer-wide (352-mile-wide) terrain of diamond fields and mines, known as Marange, that have sold at least 76 million carats of diamonds since 2010, government promises for housing and compensation have not yet been settled. After the precious stones were discovered in the eastern Mutare district in 2006, more than 35,000 people moved to the area to dig and pan as artisanal miners or buy and sell the gems along with foreign companies. But in November 2008, the Zimbabwean government controversially took control of the mining fields and deployed the military in the Mutare and Chiadzwa diamond field areas.

During Operation Hakudzokwi, which aimed to end artisanal mining deemed illegal, over 200 people were killed when military helicopters fired on diamond panners from the air. Some people were later “buried in mass graves using bulldozers,” according to testimonies collected by human rights organizations. By 2009, about 1,500 families were forcibly removed from the area and relocated to Arda Transau, 40 kilometers (25 miles) away in new houses built by Anjin Mining Investments, a joint venture between a Chinese firm, Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Group (AFECС), and the Zimbabwean military’s investment company, Matt Bronze.

The government and Anjin Mining Investments promised the families jobs in the mines, three-bedroom homes, electricity, running water, tarred roads, half a hectare (about 1.2 acres) of land with irrigation systems, schools, a clinic, seeds, fertilizer and food delivery every three months. The families, previously farmers and dependent on the land for their livestock, were also to receive help starting piggeries. However, soon after they moved in, the walls in the new homes in Arda Transau began cracking. Water supply became irregular, the irrigation systems did not materialize and the families were paid $1,000 as a relocation allowance – an amount many relocated people say is too little for the assets, homes, land and lifestyle they lost.