Zimbabwe announced plans to compensate local and foreign white farmers who lost land and property during the controversial farm seizures that began over two decades ago, aimed at addressing historical injustices related to colonialism.
Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube revealed during a recent meeting with diplomats that the government has approved compensation for 441 applications from local white farmers, totaling $351.6 million. Additionally, 94 applications from foreign farmers amounting to $196.6 million have also been approved. However, local farmers will receive only 1% of their compensation, or approximately $3.5 million, in cash, with the remainder disbursed through treasury bonds.
Foreign claimants will initially receive $20 million, to be equally distributed among applicants from Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and several Eastern European nations.
The land seizures, initiated by former President Robert Mugabe in 2000, forcibly displaced around 4,000 white farmers from their homes and farmland amid a chaotic redistribution program. Mugabe, who passed away in 2019, justified these actions as a means to correct land disparities from the colonial era following Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980. Reports from Human Rights Watch indicate that many farmers and their workers faced violence, including fatal assaults and other brutalities during the seizures.
The impact of these land seizures has been profound, severely disrupting commercial agriculture and forcing Zimbabwe, once a regional food producer, to rely on donor assistance. While the agricultural sector has shown signs of recovery in recent years, it now faces new challenges due to recurring droughts.
Local farmers will receive compensation for infrastructure improvements, such as buildings and irrigation systems, rather than for the land itself, which the government contends was rightfully seized from the Black majority. In contrast, foreign farmers will be compensated for both land and infrastructure under protective agreements.
Ncube indicated that compensation payments are expected to begin in the last quarter of 2024. Zimbabwe has been in discussions with creditors, including the African Development Bank, since 2022 to restructure its $21 billion debt, with farmers’ compensation being a significant point of negotiation.
In 2020, President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration signed a compensation agreement with the white farmers. After succeeding Mugabe in 2017, Mnangagwa has sought to mend relations with the white farming community, even encouraging them to apply for new land allocations.
Currently, all farmland in Zimbabwe is owned by the government, and individuals can only occupy it under lease agreements. Recently, the government announced plans to allow beneficiaries of the land reform program to sell their land, but only to “Indigenous Zimbabweans,” referring to Black citizens. This policy shift has sparked widespread criticism, particularly as some politically connected individuals acquired multiple farms through the redistribution initiative intended to aid the poor and can now profit from these transactions.
