Related Articles
Top Stories
May 23 2012 09:47
Western investors must realise SA does not need their money as it can now turn to fellow Brics members for funding, says ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe.
May 23 2012 08:10
Several parties, including government, have launched a Constitutional Court appeal against an interdict temporarily halting the e-toll project, Outa says.
May 23 2012 18:03
Facebook and banks are being sued by Facebook's shareholders, who claimed the defendants hid Facebook's weakened growth forecasts ahead of its initial public offering.
Johannesburg - The 11 large gem-quality stones cut from the 3106.75 carat Cullinan diamond - including the 530.2 carat Great Star of Africa - will be returned to South Africa by mid-2009.
Old documents proving the Cullinan diamond was actually only leased to the British government and its then-ruler King Edward VII will be released by Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin later on Tuesday.
The lease agreement was drawn up along the same lines as Britain?s 99-year lease of Hong Kong Island from China.
The popular story behind the Cullinan diamond is that the then cash-flush Transvaal province bought the massive stone after its discovery from the Premier Mining Company in Cullinan in 1905 and presented it to King Edward as a present.
Coming back home
The British government then commissioned Asscher Brothers in Amsterdam to cut and polish the stone. The largest stone, The Great Star of Africa, is now mounted in the British crown jewels' Sceptre with the Cross.
The second-largest gem from the Cullinan stone, the 317,4 carat Lesser Star of Africa, is also part of the British crown jewels and is set in the state crown.
Many a South African has over the years stared with great envy at these stones through the thick glass partitioning in the Tower of London, where they are housed.
Shortly they will be able to look at these stones in the old recreation hall of the Premier Mine in the small but exotic little town of Cullinan, barely 30km northeast of Pretoria.
Still SA property
The document, discovered in the state archives in Pretoria, reveals that the stone was actually still the property of the Transvaal province in 1910, when the Union of South Africa was formed, and was therefore not legally part of the crown jewels .
Ownership passed to the Union of South Africa in 1910.
To save all involved from any embarrassment, a 99-year lease agreement was entered into by the new government of the Union of South Africa and the UK government on the display and safekeeping of the 11 diamonds.
Documentation discovered in the UK confirms the existence of this lease agreement that expires in 2009.
Erwin will also disclose later on Tuesday that the British were actually quite keen to buy the diamonds in 2007 at an exorbitant price of $1bn. The cabinet, after huge pressure from ANC president Jacob Zuma, has decided against the sale of the diamonds.
Luxury accommodation
The diamonds will be returned to Cullinan; it's expected that the large inflow of new visitors to the old Premier Mine and the diamonds will greatly benefit the Dinokeng tourist area that is currently being developed to the northeast of Pretoria.
Minister Erwin will also reveal that the Zonderwater prison facilities will be converted and redeveloped into a five-star tourist facility.
Between 1941 and 1945, over 90 000 Italian prisoners of war, captured in North Africa, were housed in South Africa at Zonderwater Prison.
Dale Hayes, the well-known golfer and commentator, has recently sold the original nine-hole Cullinan golf course to a group of Chinese developers.
The Cullinan diamond, golf course and Zonderwater will surely double the attractiveness of this exotic little town.
Investors and speculators should be aware that Trader Vic plays most of his 100+ golf at Cullinan.
- Fin24