Farmers' group rejects compensation deal for past land seizures

A group representing many of the white farmers whose land was seized during Zimbabwe's land reforms over two decades ago has rejected a compensation deal and said it wants to reopen negotiations with the government.

The group has criticised the compensation that some farmers have accepted as "token" amounts.

There was little sign Wednesday that the government would reopen talks. It has said the compensation deal represents closure.

About 4,000 white farmers lost their homes and swaths of land when then-president, Robert Mugabe, launched the redistribution programme in 2000. Mugabe pointed to the need to address colonial-era land inequities after the southern African nation gained independence from white minority rule in 1980.

Zimbabwe's finance minister, Mthuli Ncube, last week announced that the government had started paying compensation to white farmers who lost land and property during the reforms. He said the government had approved the disbursement of $3.1 million, equivalent to 1 percent of the total compensation claim of $311 million.

According to the deal, the farmers would receive 1 percent of their claim in cash, with the balance settled through the issuance of treasury bonds over 10 years.

A first batch of 378 farmers has already been paid out of 740 farms approved for compensation, a move confirmed by Andrew Pascoe, who represents the beneficiary farmers. He said they were "extremely grateful."

The dissenting group representing nearly half of the 4,000 commercial farmers asserted that those accepting the payments were doing so out of desperation.

"The limited number of farmers who have accepted the government's revised deal have generally done so because they are destitute and require urgent funds for food, accommodation and healthcare," representative Deon Theron said.

He called the government compensation "a tiny fraction" of the $3.5 billion to be paid in cash over five years that was agreed under a deal between white farmers and President Emmerson Mnangagwa in 2020.

The compensation deal is part of conditions of a debt resolution and international re-engagement strategy by Zimbabwe after years of sanctions and isolation by the United States and other Western countries over alleged rights abuses against perceived critics of the government.

A few thousand farmers had owned most of Zimbabwe's prime farmland before the land reform, which saw about 300,000 Black families resettled on the acquired land, according to government figures.

Theron said most of the white farmers are now in their 70s and 80s and are unlikely to benefit from the issuance of the treasury bills.

"They are going to their graves without receiving any compensation. They need cash, and it has to be paid while they are still alive," he said.

He added, however, his group would not take legal action. He said efforts by his group to meet government officials have been unsuccessful.

Land ownership is an emotive topic in Zimbabwe and neighboring countries such as Namibia and South Africa, a result of colonial land conquests that dispossessed local Blacks.

In South Africa, a new land expropriation law has attracted criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump, who views it as a rights violation against a white minority who owned huge swaths of land. South Africa has rejected Trump's claims.