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They were arraigned before provincial magistrate Mr Mishrod Guvamombe who remanded them in custody to today for continuation of their hearing.
The six are accused of conniving to misrepresent to Government that Core Mining and Mineral Resources, a company in which one of them is a major shareholder, had the capacity to exploit diamonds in Chiadzwa.

As a result, ZMDC, Marange Resources and Core Mining formed a joint venture — Canadile Miners — that secured mining claims and in the process allegedly prejudiced ZMDC of US$10 million.
The accused include Lovemore Kurotwi (40), a shareholder and director of South Africa-based Core Mining and Mineral Resources; and Dominic Mubayiwa (49), the suspended ZMDC chief executive officer.
Kurotwi is being represented by Mr George Chikumbirike, Ms Belinda Rupapa, Mr Shingai Mutumbwa and Advocate Lewis Uriri.

Adv Uriri is also representing Mubayiwa.
The other accused is John Tichaona Muhonde (33), the ZMDC company secretary, who is represented by Mr Bruce Mujeyi.
Lawyer Mr Jonathan Samukange is acting for the fourth accused, Gloria Mawarire (39), who briefly acted as ZMDC chief executive when Mubayiwa was suspended.
ZMDC director Ashton Sibusiso Ndlovu (48) — who is represented by Mr Mordecai Mahlangu — is the fifth accused.

The sixth accused, Mark Tsomondo (53), was a ZMDC board member and sat on the parastatal’s technical committee.
Ms Melly Machiya is acting for him.
Mubaiwa, Ndlovu, Mawarire, Muhonde and Tsomondo are also facing another charge of criminal abuse of duty as public officers in addition to the fraud charge.
Opposing Mawarire’s placement on remand, Mr Samukange claimed Mines and Mining Develop-ment Minister Obert Mpofu approved Canadile’s formation.

“It is actually Mpofu who approved the joint venture agreement with all the knowledge that was required.

“He was actually better informed than anyone else. It is his baby and don’t think he would dare take the witness stand and testify.

“He was aware of what was going on. He won’t take to the witness stand to be cross-examined by us,” Mr Samukange said.

Mr Samukange also asked why ZMDC chairperson Mr Godwills Masimirembwa was a complai-nant in the matter.

“Masimirembwa was not there when the agreement was signed. He was not even part of the agreement and was not anywhere near the negotiations which formulated the joint venture agreement.”

One of Kurotwi’s lawyers, Mr Chikumbirike, accused Minerals Unit police officers of trying to abduct his client.

“I have a complaint of a serious nature. Last night (Sunday) police officers from the Minerals Unit signed accused one (Kurotwi) for court at around 2100 hours.

“Word got around that they wanted to take him to Bulawayo. For what?

“As his lawyers we rushed to the police station as a measure to make sure that nothing sinister would happen,” Mr Chikumbirike said.

Director of Public Prosecutions in the Attorney-General’s Office Mrs Florence Ziyambi and chief law officer Mr Chris Mutangadura are opposing granting of bail to the six because they are facing serious charges and the evidence against them is overwhelming.
The State also says they are likely to interfere with investigations or skip bail.

The prosecution further says that it needs time to record statements from witnesses in South Africa and that other suspects were still at large.
Allegations are that on March 27, 2009 Kurotwi approached Minister Mpofu and held discussions with a view to forming a joint venture company with the Government to mine diamonds.
It is alleged Kurotwi misrepresented that he was a representative of Benny Steinmeitz Group Resources.

Kurotwi allegedly wrote to Minister Mpofu indicating he represented Core Mining, a BSGR special purpose vehicle, and had worked with the company for three years.
He said the firm could inject US$2 billion into the mining venture, it is alleged.
The State says the minister was satisfied with the explanation and referred the matter to Mubayiwa for further discussions.

On April 7, it is alleged, Kurotwi and Mubaiwa discussed the issue.
Kurotwi allegedly wrote to Mubaiwa on April 15 informing him that BSGR was the underlying investor with Core Mining as the special vehicle.
On June 22 it is alleged, Mubayiwa wrote to Minister Mpofu and indicated that ZMDC had received numerous expressions of interest from potential investors but would recommend BSGR.
It is alleged that the minister then authorised the agreement, which was to be a 50-50 joint venture since he was under the impression that Core Mining was a subsidiary of BSGR.

On July 24, Muhonde drafted a joint venture agreement between Marange Resources (Pvt) Ltd — owned by ZMDC — and Core Mining.
It is alleged Muhonde and Mubayiwa then abandoned that agreement and connived with Yeuda Litch and Subithry Naidoo (still at large) to draft another one with them as guarantors of Core Mining.
The State says this was signed on July 24.
It is further alleged that Kurotwi and Muhonde knew that Litch and Naidoo were not Core Mining shareholders but did not disclose this to Minister Mpofu.

Mubayiwa allegedly sought authority from the minister to go to South Africa to carry out due diligence.
Authority for Mubayiwa, Muhonde, Mawarire, Ndlovu and Tsomondo to proceed was granted between August 4 and 6.
It is alleged that the five discovered that Kurotwi had misrepresented that Core Mining was an operational firm.
Instead, the State says, they connived to misrepresent to Minister Mpofu that Core Mining had satisfied ZMDC’s investor evaluation criteria and submitted a favourable report recommending the joint venture’s formation.

The ZMDC board, it is alleged, authorised Mubaiwa and Muhonde to enter into a shareholding agreement with Kurotwi, which was signed on August 14.
This led to the formation of Canadile Miners, which started mining in Marange.
Kurotwi, it is alleged, did not invest the US$2 billion he had pledged but financed Canadile’s operations through rough diamond sales.

The firm had to borrow US$1,5 million from Agribank as well, it is alleged.
The State says ZMDC suffered an actual prejudice of US$10 546 160, 22.
This is 50 percent of the 417 016,4 carats sold and a potential prejudice of US$33 059 406, being 50 percent of the 1 101 980,2 carats held.