By Dorcas Rumano

Government has castigated the United States of America (US) on its allegations of forced labour at Marange diamond fields which formed the premise for banning the importation of the country’s local diamonds.

Posting on his twitter handle, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Nick Mangwana refuted the claims of forced labour saying, “As a Government we have a very strong revulsion towards any form of slavery or servitude. To even suggest that Zimbabwe has some form of corporate forced labour is either mischievous or simply ignorant.”

On its official twitter handle, the US embassy had tweeted that, “US Customs and Border Protection issued a Withhold Release Order for artisanal rough cut diamonds from Zimbabwe’s Marange diamond fields on Oct. 1, 2019 due to evidence of forced labour. US law prohibits importation of goods made with forced labour.”

Human rights defender and founding Director of the Centre for Research and Development, Farai Maguwu, said the accusations of forced labour at Marange diamond mines by the US was nothing but fabrications.

Posting on his facebook page, Maguwu said, “I wish to make it clear that as leader of one of the organizations doing human rights work in Marange, we are not aware of cases of forced labour in Marange. This is mainly because artisanal miners go to Marange voluntarily.

“We have raised serious concerns with human rights of artisanal miners and the wider Marange community but in our analysis, these do not amount to forced labour. Our work is guided by high ethical standards and as such, we would never issue unverified information.”

Responding to US embassy’s tweet, one netizen, Never Maswerasei said Zimbabweans should unite and fight such allegations by the US.

“Whether you are affiliated to ZANU PF or MDC, any other party or non-aligned, this is grossly unacceptable. We have to stand together against this daylight robbery and sabotage by the US.

“This is the clearest indication that the Americans want us to continue suffering and are jealous at our potential to come out of it using our mineral wealth. They are now going for this jugular to make sure we do not find a way out of our economic woes. We all need to wake up,” he said.

Another netizen, Kudzi Henry tweeted, “They (US) are busy milking cobalt from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) produced under child and forced labour. What is it that white people have against Zimbabwe?  Why can’t you just leave us alone and enjoy our own resources.”

The US has a long record of using unilateral sanctions against other nations. It claims that it uses these sanctions to support democracy and human rights. However, sanctions have affected economic growth of many nations, including Zimbabwe.