EDITORIAL: Be clear on tanzanite

There have recently been upheavals in Tanzania’s tanzanite industry which have thrown into confusion business in this rare gemstone.

Growing claims were that exploitation of the mineral that’s unique to the country – hence the name ‘tanzanite’ – wasn’t fully benefiting the country and its people.

Arguably, this largely resulted from rampant smuggling and other forms of cheating of the authorities by operators with dubious probity in the tanzanite business.

In the event, President John Magufuli had the mining area fenced-in at considerable cost to the taxpayer.

But – for some reason or other(s) – his directive to also install security devices, including CCTV cameras, around the 2-by-50-kilometre mining area was never implemented.

Because of this – or perhaps despite everything else – the smuggling and cheating that includes false declarations of outputs, taxable incomes, etc., seem to have continued unabated.

This, however, is disputed by officials who claim that the tanzanite woes are caused by steeply-falling productivity, not cheating. So – as we noted in The Citizen yesterday – confusion continues to hold sway over the reality on the ground.

This mustn’t continue, and we reiterate our earlier calls upon the government to restore sanity in the nation’s tanzanite industry – thereby reclaiming the mantle of principled resources exploitation of our unique potential wealth.