Chaos reigned in Parliament Thursday after cabinet minister Obert Mpofu refused to answer questions regarding the claimed theft of $15 billion in revenues due to government from diamond mining at Marange.
Mpofu was appearing before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Energy. He was mines minister when, according to former president Robert Mugabe, the billions were looted.
The minister however, refused to answer questions over the matter if independent Norton MP Temba Mliswa continued to chair proceedings.
He said Mliswa was compromised, claiming that the MP once drove over 600km to his home to discuss “diamonds and other issues”, in addition to repeatedly criticising him in the media.
Mpofu, now home affairs minister, further told MPs that he could not speak on another minister cabinet brief.
“I am a former minister, and there is a new minister in that ministry; I was the minister between 2008 -2013,” he said.
“And that there was a committee similar to this one where I was subjected to similar questioning and they were professional.
“I am not minister of mines, and I don’t know which precedence has been set where former ministers are subjected to operations which they experienced when they were in those ministries.”
He added, “I have no mandate to speak for the ministry of mines; I cannot speak for a ministry that I was in five years ago and nothing can force me to do that.