HARARE - Zimbabwean diamond miners are set to lay off at least 450 workers in the next three months as part of a “belt tightening” exercises on the back of dwindling gem reserves, an American business journal has said.
Gallup Business Journal (Gallup) recently released a report stating that the miners will be forced to let go of more staff as “the excess manpower will weigh down the miners and they will continue to lay off more”.
“The deposits are running out and it is imperative for the firms to remain viable and relevant,” it said, adding that “the lack of technology to fully exploit the area is a major cause for the job chop.” Gallup’s remarks come on the back of reports that diamond mining firms operating in Zimbabwe’s Marange fields are expected to cut around 400 jobs this month as it has become unsustainable for them to dig any deeper for the gems.
Farai Maguwu, director for the Center of Natural Resource Governance, told Businessdaily that the job losses could be higher than Gallup’s estimate.
“Obviously, it makes more sense for the companies to lay off workers but at the rate at which the environment was being exploited the workers will not be sustained,” he said.
“They will likely lay off more than the expected 450 because as we speak, two of the seven companies in the area have already stopped operations, we have been predicting this for some time now” Maguwu said.