The Zimbabwean government announced plans to pay an initial $20 million this month to both foreign white and local Black farmers who lost their land during farm invasions that occurred under former President Robert Mugabe at the beginning of the century, according to the finance minister’s statement on Friday.
This allocation was included in the 2024 budget as part of various measures aimed at revitalizing the nation’s once-thriving agricultural sector and initiating a long-promised economic recovery.
Agriculture in Zimbabwe deteriorated following Mugabe’s implementation of land seizures in 2000, targeting highly productive farms primarily owned by white commercial farmers, a legacy of colonial land expropriation from Black farmers in the early 20th century.
Additionally, both foreign white farmers and some Black Zimbabweans lost their properties during these largely spontaneous and disorganized seizures, which mainly benefited those connected to the ruling Zanu-PF party.
The compensation will go to foreign farmers from countries such as Belgium and Germany, as well as 400 Black Zimbabweans, as stated by Mthuli Ncube. In 2020, a separate and larger compensation scheme worth $3.5 billion for 4,000 white Zimbabwean farmers was announced, but funds have yet to be disbursed due to the country’s ongoing financial struggles.
Since succeeding Mugabe in a 2017 coup, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has sought to re-establish relations with Western governments to address Zimbabwe’s significant foreign debt and stimulate economic recovery, although last year’s elections were deemed neither free nor fair, which undermined donor confidence.
Ncube emphasized that the dialogue process is progressing and will aid in eventually clearing the country’s arrears.
Zimbabwe has been excluded from the global financial system for over two decades due to defaults, further hindering donor assistance.
The country is pursuing an International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff-monitored program as a preliminary step toward debt relief, with an IMF team set to visit Harare in the next two weeks.
