ZCDC Confirms Shooting Of Diamond Harvesters

The Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamonds Company, ZCDC, has confirmed that its security guards shot and killed alleged illegal diamond miners in Marange last Tuesday.

ZCDC spokesperson Sugar Chagonda confirmed the shooting in an interview on Friday.

Reports initially received from ZimEye.com sources indicated that two people were killed and over forty injured when the ZCDC guards fired at miners who had found a new diamonds deposit outside the protected concession area.

Chagonda disputed the claim saying that only one person was killed and a number he could not specify injured.

Chagonda defended the guards’ brutal act claiming that they shot the hapless miners in self-defence.

According to him, the guards were dispatched to go and clear the miners from the area by the government-owned mining company which is holding sole rights to mine diamonds in the area.

“When the guards got to the area, the illegal miners refused to disperse and armed themselves with shovels and peaks and advanced to fight the guards,” he said.

“Fearing for their lives, our guards fire three warning shots to the air but the miners who outnumbered the guards continued advancing which forced the guards to shoot at them,” he added.

Speaking in a separate interview, Director of the Centre for Natural Resource Governance Trust, Farai Maguwu claimed that the guards indeed killed two innocent people and injured forty others.

According to him, the matter was reported to Mutare Rural Police who however would not comment on the matter._ZimEye

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