News / National
Zimbabwe to compensate white commercial farmers
10 Mar 2015 at 06:16hrs | Views
White commercial farmers who lost land during a program of violent seizures that began in 2000 will compensated for improvements to the properties when the country has funds available, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said.
Chinamasa says this will be done as a way of injecting confidence in the economy.
Speaking to the media at the conclusion of the IMF Staff-Monitored Program review, finance minister Patrick Chinamasa said this will require a comprehensive audit to ascertain the amount owed to white commercial farmers that lost their land and property during the fast-track land reform program.
"Compensating the farmers is covered by our constitution," Chinamasa said.
"We need a determination of what we owe the farmers and a commitment from government. To compute what we owe, we need to do evaluations. Once it is clear to everyone that we are no longer quarrelling, that improves confidence in great way. We do not have the money to compensate the farmers, but we can at least undertake the preliminary steps," he said.
"We will compensate them for improvements they made to the land when we're able to do so."
According to Chinamasa, the government is also making token payments of $150 000 monthly towards clearing its +$145 million debt with the IMF and expressed confidence that the country will be able to open the floodgates of new development financing by this time next year.
Chinamasa says this will be done as a way of injecting confidence in the economy.
Speaking to the media at the conclusion of the IMF Staff-Monitored Program review, finance minister Patrick Chinamasa said this will require a comprehensive audit to ascertain the amount owed to white commercial farmers that lost their land and property during the fast-track land reform program.
"Compensating the farmers is covered by our constitution," Chinamasa said.
"We need a determination of what we owe the farmers and a commitment from government. To compute what we owe, we need to do evaluations. Once it is clear to everyone that we are no longer quarrelling, that improves confidence in great way. We do not have the money to compensate the farmers, but we can at least undertake the preliminary steps," he said.
"We will compensate them for improvements they made to the land when we're able to do so."
According to Chinamasa, the government is also making token payments of $150 000 monthly towards clearing its +$145 million debt with the IMF and expressed confidence that the country will be able to open the floodgates of new development financing by this time next year.
Source - Byo24News
