By Takunda Mandura

Zimbabweans have not benefited from their natural resources due to a culture of corruption. This was said by panelists at a round table discussion in Harare.

Speaking at a round table discussion held at Media Centre under theme ‘15 billion Saga: Counting missed opportunities, and lessons for the future?’ former Member of Parliament  (MP) Pearson Mungofa castigated the Mines and Minerals Act of 1962 which is still being used by the government.

“The Mines and Minerals Act of 1962 was supposed to have been removed a long time ago. We are still using the act which was established by the Smith regime .It means our government has got no interest to change that, because of some reasons which I think everybody knows.”

He also urged the government to research about diamond mining and take the Botswana approach when it comes to the mining industry. He bemoaned the collapse of the diamond industry urging the government to copy from neighboring Botswana and South Africa who are considerably doing well.

“There are short of technical people to help them. Research was supposed to be done before commencing of the mining activity. They have taken so much time to amend the Minerals Marketing Act, this industry should have created at least 60 000 jobs”.

Mungofa also went on to express his discontent with the Zimbabwean Parliament as he singled out former Minister of Mines and Mining Development Obert Mpofu, who he said  had to be called to parliament by a court order after he defied parliament on several occasions.

“The truth of the matter is that our parliament still lacks democracy. MPs have nothing to do there, MPs are suppressed. That parliament is a problem, let me be very, very honest, the whole system suppresses MPs and they have no authority to change anything” said Mungofa.

He also criticized the government for negotiating bad contracts.

Zimbabwe Environmental Lawyers Association’s , Darlington Muyambwa also castigated the government for lacking  a culture of transparency in signing of contracts saying the public needs to be aware of what would be transpiring in the country

“It is the government which is saying it has lost revenue from a company in which it owns, the Anti-Corruption committee needs to do an inquiry in this issues,”.

Brain Kauna, an Economist also expressed his discontent with how revenue which is being generated by other industries including mining has not benefited the country but only a few privileged  whilst the unemployment levels are at 85%.