Source: Zim land beneficiaries to compensate white farmers, says govt | Fin24
Beneficiaries of Zimbabwe’s controversial land reform programme will have to pay compensation to the displaced white farmers, a senior government official told parliament on Wednesday.
Zimbabwe’s second president after long-time president Robert Mugabe, Emmerson Mnangagwa promised to compensate white farmers who lost their land during his predecessors notorious land reform programme.
President Mnangagwa said while land reform was inevitable and could not be reversed, those farmers who were removed from their land would receive compensation.
The former farmers are owed some US$9bn in compensation for improvements made on the farms before the land reform exercise.
Responding to questions in parliament, Lands and Agriculture Minister Perrance Shiri said the state would not be burdened with paying compensation, as it was individual resettled farmers that benefited.
“It makes common sense that instead of labouring the tax payer, the person who is directly benefiting from those improvements contributes towards the compensation of the former farmers.”
Minister Shiri said while government had made a commitment to pay the former white farmers, it was going to raise funds from the beneficiaries.
“The policy is that the new farmer pays for the improvement on the farm and that money is used to compensate the white farmer, and that is government’s position.”
If there is a shortage of money then government may chip in, but the new farmer has to contribute, including the $3/hectare per year in levies that farmers are already paying, said Shiri.
Earlier this week, Shiri told a grouping of largely white commercial farmers who lost their land, the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU), that they had a legitimate right to seek redress over the lost land.
“Our government is firmly committed to a process of the need for corrective measures to deal with the consequences of past injustices. Our policy recognises the legitimate demand for justice from those who have been dispossessed or excluded.”
CFU president Peter van Zyl urged Government to fulfill its pledge to pay compensation to white farmers.
The policy will likely affect some senior officials in government and the ruling Zanu-PF the most severely – those who benefited from elite capture of the land reform programme. While thousands of families were resettled under Zimbabwe’s land reform programme, many of the farms with pre-existing infrastructure such as houses, dams and irrigation equipment, among other fixed properties, went to the elite.
COMMENTS
Government needs to issue title deeds to the farmers so that they can borrow money from the bank to pay the original owner in full. Title deeds must also be given to the communal farmers
Kamunda kangu hapana kana improvement.
Ndinobvisa mari yechii? Ivo vakatora dzimba, madhamhu, minda, ngavabhadhare.
Compensation is made for improvements that were made on the farms. I was given a very small piece of land in the state of a bush with no improvements whatsover. My neibghour, who is a BIG FAT CHEFU got a big farm which had a fence all round and paddocks, cattle pens, a large farm house, workers houses, 2 large garages, a barn, 3 boreholes, electricity, a dam, water pump and pipes, 50 hectares prepared fields, a tractor and harvester, roads etc.
Why should I pay any compensation to the white farmer when I did not benefit from any improvement on my small piece of land. LET EACH BENEFICIARY PAY FOR THE IMPROVEMENTS THAT HE FOUND ON HIS FARM.
MAJAIRA ZVAMAHARA
Really? How ridiculous!
This is the work of a genius like Prof Scoones. We need to get him on to the economy with Dr. Gideon Gonzo – just print more money!
There will be no economic recovery. These Zanu PF people are liars.
What about the 20 000 civilian genocide Mr Shiri – what about that small indiscretion?
“PAST INJUSTICES ” . You hit it on the nail again. How thick are you. You have simply admitted, if you speak and understand English correctly, that you all were wrong in doing what you did. Let’s get one thing straight here you ZanuPF thugs you took farms from all not only the whites. Yes they were the majority who had their farms stolen from them . This simply proves who you are appeasing and it’s not the white farmers and the reasoning behind your thoughts.
The British government gave you money to buy the farms , So you can’t ask them now can you. WHERE IS THIS MONEY. Go back to Bob your uncle and get it from him now. You bloody thieves are just that thieves.
This is the work of a genius like Prof Scoones. We need to get him on to the economy with Dr. Gideon Gonzo – just print more money!
You are such a goon. These so called new farmers can’t even support themselves after all this time. The farms have been stripped of their assets. And I agree wholeheartedly with Nyoni……you have just put in writing, you fool, that he land doesn’t belong to the State. The new farmer has to buy it! Chop.
How about you start with the farms looted by government officials? Mugabe still has 12.
Zimbabwe to compensate owners of land/farms that were nationlised – Date April 1