South African President Jacob Zuma ( pictured )has told the International Monetary Fund to resume lending to Zimbabwe as he continues the battle to end the illegal economic sanctions against Zimbabwe.

However, just like recently when his call to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown for the European Union and its Western partners to lift the embargo did not get a positive response, the IMF maintained it was still not prepared to resume lending to Zimbabwe.

IMF boss Mr Dominique Strauss-Kahn cited ‘‘concerns’’ about the country’s political situation.

Enthusiasm for Africa’s World Cup is growing around the globe,  even in a country where soccer does not rank highly in the national psyche. The United States has purchased the most number of tickets for the FIFA spectacle. To date 116 000 tickets from the US have been purchased – due to the aggressive nature  the World Cup and the country have been promoted in North America.

Apart from the host nation, South Africa, the US leads the number of ticket sales globally – followed by the bigger soccer loving nations of the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany and Mexico.

“It is an excuse for us Americans to go have a big party and finally see Africa because most Americans will save money for five years and always put the Africa trip off – maybe for retirement. Now with soccer they are going – heck no, Africa is not going to get another World Cup. We have got to go and let us do our Safari at the same time,” says FIFA accredited tour operator, Terry Von Guilleaume.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti(pictured) has called for a complete overhaul of the laws governing the country’s diamond trade, saying all the mining leases that the government has awarded to firms in the Chiadzwa diamond field should be cancelled. The Supreme Court has ready ordered the state authorised companies mining the fields to halt their operations, over the ongoing ownership wrangle for the claim with a UK based firm.

Currently Mbada Diamonds and Canadile Miners, which are both joint ventures the government formed with two South African firms last year, are mining diamonds at Chiadzwa. They took over from the London based African Consolidated Resources (ACR), who were forced out of the claim at gunpoint in 2006, despite having the legal title to mine the diamonds. Biti said over the weekend that the leases awarded to Mbada and Canadile were done so ‘fraudulently’, explaining that the MDC’s national executive resolved to have all mining operations in Chiadzwa stopped until a clear law on diamond mining is established.

He added that there is also no revenue entering the government’s coffers despite millions of diamonds being mined by the firms. “There is nothing coming from Chiadzwa. There is nothing coming to the fiscus from Chiadzwa,” Biti said at a rally over the weekend. “Chiadzwa represents the biggest find of alluvial diamonds in the history of mankind. In the interest of transparency, all mining licences, leases, special grants that have been given in Chiadzwa must be cancelled forthwith. All mining operations must cease.