PLUMMETING global diamond prices have severely disrupted operations at major local miners, with Anjin Investments now owing employees seven months’ worth of unpaid salaries, the Zimbabwe Independent has established.
The slump has also battered the state-owned Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC), where falling prices and the flood of cheaper synthetic gems have forced widespread retrenchments, leaving an estimated 500 workers jobless.
At Anjin, a joint venture between China’s Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Company and the Zimbabwean military’s investment arm, Matt Bronze, frustrated workers are demanding immediate payment of what they describe as “meagre” wages.
“We have gone for seven months without salaries. Our efforts to engage management have produced nothing. Management attributes its failure to settle salaries to falling prices,” one source said.
“We are living on the edge. It is not a coincidence that a number of workers have been dismissed over diamond theft and raising concerns over outstanding salaries. The situation is dire.”
Contacted for comment, Anjin human resources assistant David Muchinguri said he would have to consult his “superiors”.
Erratic power supplies have compounded the crisis, further disrupting operations across the diamond-mining sector.
The current turmoil marks yet another chapter of difficulty for Anjin. In 2016, the government suspended operations of all seven firms mining in Chiadzwa and later consolidated their claims under the then newly-formed ZCDC.
Although Anjin was eventually allowed to resume operations, it has now been hit hard by the global price collapse.
At ZCDC, management responded to the slump by withholding diamond parcels from the international market to avoid selling at a loss.
However, this strategy deprived the company of critical revenue needed to meet operational and salary obligations, leading to retrenchments.
The Zimbabwe Diamond and Allied Minerals Workers Union (ZDAMWU) condemned the layoffs as “unfair and procedurally flawed” and has petitioned Mines and Mining Development minister Winston Chitando to intervene.
ZCDC’s woes persist despite substantial state backing. When it was established in 2016, the government injected about US$80 million into the company to build capacity, including the installation of a 450-tonne-per-hour conglomerate plant in Chiadzwa and enhanced security systems.
Despite this investment, ZCDC has recorded a string of losses over the years and has now been plunged deeper into the red by the global downturn.
