Zimbabwe parliament May Charge Mugabe With Contempt, See Why

Robert Mugabe

For failing to appear on Monday before parliament to clarify a statement he made in 2016 that Zimbabwe could have lost 15 billion U.S. dollars through diamond revenue leakages, former Zimbabwean leader, Robert Mugabe risked being charged with contempt by the country’s parliament

May 9 was initially picked for the meeting between The parliamentary portfolio committee on mines and energy and Mugabe, but it was prosponed to 23rd of May.

Mugabe didn’t show up on the slated date of 23rd of May, therefore the hearing was moved further to 27th of May.

On Monday, Themba Mliswa, the committee chairman reveal to journalist that parliament would now write the third and final letter to Mugabe inviting him to attend, failure of which he would face contempt of parliament charges.

“The committee unanimously agreed that we write to the former president inviting him to appear before us on June 11, 2018 at 2 O’clock,” Mliswa said.”If he fails to attend, we will have no choice but to summon him and it’s something that we regret. We hope we will not get to that stage of summoning him as his legacy needs to be protected.”

The meeting, if it happens, will be Mugabe’s first public meeting since he was forced to resign in November last year following a military intervention.

In 2016, Mugabe saidthat Zimbabwe could have lost 15 billion dollars through diamond revenue leakages from mining operations in Chiadzwa diamond fields in eastern Zimbabwe.

With oral evidence from several serving and former cabinet ministers, security chiefs and mining officials, the committee, for some months now have been trying to get more evidence to conclude it investigation into the issue and was hoping that Mugabe’s oral evidence would aid the investigation. However, Mugabe have refused to appear before the committee.