Diamonds Turn Rags to Riches

Posted to the web 6 August 2008 Mutare Diamonds have scripted a typical rags to riches story for Bonny, 35, who spent most of his life on the streets before the discovery of the gems three years ago, near the eastern Zimbabwe town of Mutare, transformed his life. " I have, over the last two years, acquired a fleet of 12 cars and several houses in Mutare and in the capital, Harare," Bonny told IRIN. "When the diamond rush began, very few people believed the stones were precious. In fact, a company which had been doing some explorations here even went as far as to say the stones were worthless industrial diamonds," he said. "We had nothing to lose because we had little to occupy our time as street dwellers. We collected as many stones as possible and when buyers started flooding in, we realised we had made a lot of money,"... [read full story]