The Zimbabwean government says it will compensate local and foreign white farmers who lost land and property during the farm seizures around the year 2000.
Approximately 4,000 white farmers were affected by the land redistribution programme launched by then-president Robert Mugabe in 2000, which turned violent at times.
Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube announced on Wednesday at a meeting with diplomats that the government approved $351.6 million for local white farmers and $196.6 million for foreign claimants, but only 1% of the compensation will be paid in cash.
The remaining compensation will be issued through treasury bonds.
The government has approved payments for 444 former commercial farm owners, compensating them for improvements made to the land before their eviction.
Foreign claimants from countries including Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, and Eastern Europe will share an initial $20 million. Said Ncube:
The government allocated $35 million in the 2024 budget for compensating former farm owners who are part of the Global Compensation Deed signed in 2020.
The compensation for local farmers covers infrastructure such as buildings and irrigation equipment, not the land itself.
Foreigners covered under investment agreements will be compensated for both land and infrastructure.
The payments are expected in the last quarter of 2024.
The payments are vital in the southern African nation’s bid to win over creditors for the restructure of the $21 billion debt it owes, after defaulting in 1999.
The nation confirmed that it had hired advisers to help with the restructure, including Global Sovereign Advisory and Kelper-Karst, with support from the African Legal Support Facility.
In 2020, President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government signed a compensation deal with white farmers, encouraging them to apply for new land.
All farmland is now government-owned and leased to occupants.
The government plans to allow beneficiaries of the reform to sell land only to “Indigenous Zimbabweans,” sparking criticism.
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