Diamond producer pumps millions into community development projects

LOCAL diamond producer Anjin Investments (Pvt) Ltd has invested millions of dollars into community development particularly in education, health, and social services as part of efforts towards contributing to the country’s development agenda.

While the focus started in the Chiadzwa and Marange areas where the mining entity is located in Manicaland, it has gradually spread to other districts in the province with the ultimate goal of making an impact across the country.

Anjin is a joint venture between Zimbabwe and China, each with a 50 percent shareholding. It stands out as a unique business that rubberstamps bilateral relations between the two nations, riding on the Second Republic’s policy of engagement and re-engagement.

It exudes the success of the ‘Zimbabwe is Open for Business’ agenda and shines as an example of a successful Chinese investment in Zimbabwe. Anjin started operations in 2010 it was closed together with other diamond companies in the Marange areas as the Government wanted to consolidate diamond mining.

It reopened in 2021, but most of the infrastructure had been vandalised. However, despite the vandalism, the company has found its feet and is among the country’s diamond producers including the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company and Rio Zim Murowa Diamonds.

At the recent Kimberly Process Certification Scheme plenary session in Victoria Falls, the company was one of the presenters on FRAME 7 on responsible sourcing which was one of the main focus areas for the conference.

In an interview on the sidelines of the event, the company’s spokesperson Major Special Matarirano said Anjin’s drive towards Community Social Responsibility has been growing despite setbacks like vandalism of equipment.

“As a company, we had to retool and while we were retooling the drive towards community development was reorganized as the focus was to rebuild trust in the community. We had a lot of interface with traditional leaders, community, and groups and we were the first to have about 488 households given accommodation at Arda Transal,” he said.

“The major thing we are doing now which we started in 2022 is the drive towards education. We introduced the Anjin Bursary which started with two schools and 14 children and now it has 15 schools and 150 beneficiaries.”

Maj Matarirano said the company takes care of the beneficiaries as it pays school fees and provides all learning needs including uniforms and learning materials.

“The focus is also on developing learning infrastructure, sporting facilities and health infrastructure where we have invested significantly,” he said.

The company has also initiated water projects in the dry Marange and Chiadzwa areas and its 20km water pipeline to the mine from Odzi River has numerous outlets to the community along the pipeline and has created a greenbelt where villagers use the water for domestic use and local irrigation projects.

“We are literally looking after the beneficiaries. In the two years that we have been fully operational, we have managed to impact positively on the community. The road is still long because we need very viable projects that rubberstamp our existence as a mining company and that will be felt even long after diamond mining stops,’ said Maj Matarirano.

“We have clustered schools into 10 per area in Chiadzwa and Mukwada where we are developing a cluster school programme so that they develop even without the involvement of the mining company. We are in Chiefs Marange and Zimunya and we have spread to Chimanimani because diamonds must benefit locals and other districts as well.”

Maj Matarirano said Anjin is a unique company that is an example of Chinese investment in Zimbabwe and solidifies relations as well as shows investors’ trust in Zimbabwe.-chronicle