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Why compensate white farmers, not ZPRA?
14 Apr 2025 at 19:04hrs | Views
Veteran freedom fighter and opposition politician Moses Mzila Ndlovu has strongly criticised the Zimbabwean government's recent payment of compensation to white former commercial farmers, calling it a glaring injustice that ignores the unresolved grievances of former ZPRA and ZAPU members.
His comments follow the government's announcement that it had paid US$3 million to white farmers as part of a broader US$3.5 billion agreement signed in 2020. The deal aims to compensate white Zimbabweans for land expropriated during the controversial fast-track land reform programme launched in the early 2000s.
According to Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube, the latest payment covers one percent of an initial US$311 million earmarked for the first 378 farms approved for compensation out of 740. The remainder of the compensation will be paid through US dollar-denominated Treasury bonds.
But for Ndlovu, a former minister and a prominent voice on matters of historical justice, the gesture represents a painful double standard.
"It is ironic how ZPRA and ZAPU properties acquired in the open land and property market with collective demobilisation payouts were unjustifiably seized without compensation," he said. "Meanwhile, most of the land seized from black people starting in 1890 by whites is now being compensated by a government claiming to be pro-justice."
Ndlovu accused the ruling Zanu PF party of betraying the principles of the liberation struggle, arguing that the move to pay white farmers while ignoring claims by liberation war veterans reveals the hypocrisy at the heart of Zimbabwe's post-independence governance.
"We will keep exposing Robert Mugabe's sellout antics since he left ZAPU," he said, referring to the late president's controversial 1987 Unity Accord with Joshua Nkomo, which critics say resulted in the erasure of ZAPU's political and economic legacy.
Citing historical records and previously unheard political revelations, Ndlovu claimed the manipulation of power in 1980 marked the beginning of Zimbabwe's prolonged electoral disputes and political instability.
"ZAPU won the vote, but the elections were handed to Mugabe and Zanu PF," Ndlovu claimed. "Some who have left Zanu PF have even publicly stated the party has never won an election."
He pointed to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's pre-election comments and alleged involvement of Western intelligence agencies as evidence of international interference in Zimbabwe's founding elections.
Turning to land reform, Ndlovu dismissed the official narrative that it was a revolutionary act of justice for black Zimbabweans, arguing that the government has now exposed its own duplicity by compensating those it once vilified.
"The land issue, which we argued was simply weaponised, has now come full circle. The chickens are coming home to roost as the Zanu government compensates white farmers for what they lost when the land reform programme was implemented."
In sharp contrast, Ndlovu noted, ZPRA's property portfolio - consisting of farms, commercial buildings, and other assets - was seized by the government in the 1980s and has never been returned or compensated for, despite decades of lobbying.
He also tied the lack of compensation to the government's failure to address the Gukurahundi atrocities, in which thousands of civilians in Matabeleland were killed during a military crackdown widely seen as politically and ethnically motivated.
"It explains why Mugabe refused Joshua Nkomo's suggestion of an inter-party investigation into the Fifth Brigade killings," Ndlovu said. "It also explains why Mugabe refused to compensate the dead and living victims of his dastardly ethnic cleansing operation."
He warned the public not to be deceived by revolutionary rhetoric, which he said has been used as a tool to mask the betrayal of liberation ideals.
"All sellouts have to wear a mask to be attractive to the oppressed people," he said. "Mobutu Sese Seko, Jonas Savimbi, Holden Roberto, Moise Tshombe - all were fiery, eloquent speakers in Robert Mugabe's league, yet they were in the service of imperialism."
Ndlovu also questioned why Mugabe, despite being condemned as a dictator by the West, was allowed to remain in power for decades without facing the same fate as other leaders like Libya's Muammar Gaddafi or Iraq's Saddam Hussein.
"He was given a soft landing, and people were sold a dummy. That was done to preserve a legacy," Ndlovu said.
"But that legacy is one of corruption, ethnic marginalisation of Matabeleland, political repression, institutionalised tribalism, land dispossession and displacement, and presiding over the decay of an economy while a new class of obscenely wealthy black elites - sons and daughters of liberation struggle sellouts - enjoy the spoils of our blood and sweat."
As calls for historical justice grow louder, Ndlovu's criticism adds further pressure on the Zimbabwean government to address long-standing issues of marginalisation, unresolved land grievances, and restitution for victims of past state abuses.
His comments follow the government's announcement that it had paid US$3 million to white farmers as part of a broader US$3.5 billion agreement signed in 2020. The deal aims to compensate white Zimbabweans for land expropriated during the controversial fast-track land reform programme launched in the early 2000s.
According to Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube, the latest payment covers one percent of an initial US$311 million earmarked for the first 378 farms approved for compensation out of 740. The remainder of the compensation will be paid through US dollar-denominated Treasury bonds.
But for Ndlovu, a former minister and a prominent voice on matters of historical justice, the gesture represents a painful double standard.
"It is ironic how ZPRA and ZAPU properties acquired in the open land and property market with collective demobilisation payouts were unjustifiably seized without compensation," he said. "Meanwhile, most of the land seized from black people starting in 1890 by whites is now being compensated by a government claiming to be pro-justice."
Ndlovu accused the ruling Zanu PF party of betraying the principles of the liberation struggle, arguing that the move to pay white farmers while ignoring claims by liberation war veterans reveals the hypocrisy at the heart of Zimbabwe's post-independence governance.
"We will keep exposing Robert Mugabe's sellout antics since he left ZAPU," he said, referring to the late president's controversial 1987 Unity Accord with Joshua Nkomo, which critics say resulted in the erasure of ZAPU's political and economic legacy.
Citing historical records and previously unheard political revelations, Ndlovu claimed the manipulation of power in 1980 marked the beginning of Zimbabwe's prolonged electoral disputes and political instability.
"ZAPU won the vote, but the elections were handed to Mugabe and Zanu PF," Ndlovu claimed. "Some who have left Zanu PF have even publicly stated the party has never won an election."
He pointed to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's pre-election comments and alleged involvement of Western intelligence agencies as evidence of international interference in Zimbabwe's founding elections.
"The land issue, which we argued was simply weaponised, has now come full circle. The chickens are coming home to roost as the Zanu government compensates white farmers for what they lost when the land reform programme was implemented."
In sharp contrast, Ndlovu noted, ZPRA's property portfolio - consisting of farms, commercial buildings, and other assets - was seized by the government in the 1980s and has never been returned or compensated for, despite decades of lobbying.
He also tied the lack of compensation to the government's failure to address the Gukurahundi atrocities, in which thousands of civilians in Matabeleland were killed during a military crackdown widely seen as politically and ethnically motivated.
"It explains why Mugabe refused Joshua Nkomo's suggestion of an inter-party investigation into the Fifth Brigade killings," Ndlovu said. "It also explains why Mugabe refused to compensate the dead and living victims of his dastardly ethnic cleansing operation."
He warned the public not to be deceived by revolutionary rhetoric, which he said has been used as a tool to mask the betrayal of liberation ideals.
"All sellouts have to wear a mask to be attractive to the oppressed people," he said. "Mobutu Sese Seko, Jonas Savimbi, Holden Roberto, Moise Tshombe - all were fiery, eloquent speakers in Robert Mugabe's league, yet they were in the service of imperialism."
Ndlovu also questioned why Mugabe, despite being condemned as a dictator by the West, was allowed to remain in power for decades without facing the same fate as other leaders like Libya's Muammar Gaddafi or Iraq's Saddam Hussein.
"He was given a soft landing, and people were sold a dummy. That was done to preserve a legacy," Ndlovu said.
"But that legacy is one of corruption, ethnic marginalisation of Matabeleland, political repression, institutionalised tribalism, land dispossession and displacement, and presiding over the decay of an economy while a new class of obscenely wealthy black elites - sons and daughters of liberation struggle sellouts - enjoy the spoils of our blood and sweat."
As calls for historical justice grow louder, Ndlovu's criticism adds further pressure on the Zimbabwean government to address long-standing issues of marginalisation, unresolved land grievances, and restitution for victims of past state abuses.
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