The South African Diamond & Precious Metals Regulator (SAD-PMR) has decided to accept imports of rough diamonds from Zimbabwe, the organization said this week in a communique.

As quoted in Zimbabwe's Financial Gazette, the communique said that Zimbabwe's diamonds would be "treated like any other import of rough diamonds from any of [the] Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) participants and therefore the usual import and export processes and procedures are to be followed."

Zimbabwe's diamonds remain under international embargo, despite a unilateral decision taken in March by KP Chairman Mathieu Yamba to allow the country to export its diamonds.

Zimbabwe's Mines and Mining Development Minister Obert Mpofu has repeatedly declared that his country is in full compliance with KP demands and claimed that continued opposition to exports of diamonds from the Marange region is political. Diamond industry activists and human rights groups in Zimbabwe, however, continue to report ongoing human rights abuses in the country's diamond fields.