HARARE – RZM Murowa, operator of the Murowa Diamonds mine in Zvishavane, has been placed under voluntary corporate rescue, invoking a statutory moratorium that freezes all pending litigation, asset attachments and debt executions against the diamond miner.

The company’s board adopted the corporate rescue resolution on July 6, with proceedings taking effect from July 7 following the filing of the resolution with the Master of the High Court and the Registrar of Companies.

Tinashe Rwodzi of Tasima Capital has been appointed corporate rescue practitioner.

The move follows warnings from the government over Murowa’s deteriorating operational and financial state. Mines deputy minister Fred Moyo had described conditions at the mine as “deeply worrying”, cautioning that continued instability could trigger protests and expose Zimbabwe’s diamond sector to international scrutiny.

“This is a diamond mine that must not be allowed to deteriorate beyond a certain point, as this can bring in security issues and KPCS issues,” Moyo said, referring to the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, the global watchdog that monitors diamonds for links to violence and unethical sourcing.

“Creditor non-payment is always a bad sign. If villagers and workers begin to trespass on the mine and security then descends on them and chaos ensues, the KPCS will naturally respond.”

The financial paralysis has hit hardest in the surrounding Zvishavane community, where Murowa is a major employer. Most of its workforce is drawn from nearby wards, and both workers and local small and medium enterprises supplying the mine have gone unpaid for an extended period.

Murowa’s troubles are closely tied to the wider corporate crisis at RioZim Limited, the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed mining house that holds roughly 23 percent of the diamond miner.

RioZim itself is facing a bid for corporate rescue after a shareholder filed an application citing insolvency, coming after a separate 2025 application by the Zimbabwe Diamond and Allied Minerals Workers Union and two subsidiary employees, on similar grounds, was struck off the roll by the Supreme Court.

Despite the legal pressure, RioZim shareholders recently approved a major restructuring package at an Extraordinary General Meeting, sanctioning a US$61 million debt-for-asset swap intended to extinguish the group’s liabilities.

Under the deal, RioZim will transfer its 22.2 percent stake in Murowa, along with four diamond concessions including Sese and Shavahuru, to Murowa at a combined value of US$28.44 million, while the remaining US$32.33 million owed will be written off entirely.

RioZim management has defended the restructuring as necessary to repair its balance sheet and restore its going-concern status. But the plan has drawn objections from trade creditor Carpafe Investments and two employees, Stone Karimuuswa and Kudzai Mukondiwa, who argue that the roughly 53 percent debt write-off amounts to a “substantial erosion” of Murowa’s assets that would leave the miner unable to meet its own US$67 million in outstanding obligations to workers, pension funds and utilities.

The corporate rescue comes at a moment of operational recovery for Murowa, which has a nameplate capacity of about 1.2 million carats a year. After a 2021 output plunge and a US$28 million loss in mid-2025 driven by weak global diamond prices, the mine posted a sharp rebound in the first quarter of 2026, producing 45,606 carats – a recovery that followed a pivot to in-pit mining targeting higher-grade ore.

It remains unclear how the corporate rescue proceedings will affect that operational trajectory going forward.