A diamond smuggler, a fraudster and a former mercenary are reported to be on the board of a South African-backed firm involved in mining Zimbabwe’s Chiadzwa diamond fields.

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) published some of the names of those on the board of Canadile miners which was controversially picked to mine the world’s richest diamond field.

These revelations are causing an outcry.

Until now the Zimbabwe mines minister has not said who sits on the board which was hurriedly picked to mine the Chiadzwa fields last year but Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC claimed Canadile was made up of "shady individuals and fugitives from justice".

The party gave names.

They include an Israeli diamond smuggler who spent time in jail in Angola on smuggling charges, a white former mercenary in Sierra Leone and a man on the police wanted list in Thailand for massive diamond fraud.

The MDC is asking how these people were entrusted with Zimbabwe’s vast mineral wealth and whether Zimbabweans themselves would ever get a cent of diamond money.