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Two of Zimbabwe’s last 11 white farmers (unnamed) leave court after being ordered to stand trial for challenging a government eviction notice, at Chegutu Magistrates Court in Mashonaland West Province, 100 km northwest of Harare, Zimbabwe, October 11, 2007 (Photo: EPA / Bishop Asare)
Just a month after pledging to pay former white commercial farmers $ 3.5 billion in compensation for land improvements made before farm seizures in the 2000s under the late President Robert Mugabe, authorities in troubled Southern African state now offer land in lieu of reparations.
The Zimbabwean government has offered long-term bonds to help raise the money and also “anticipate donor funding” to meet this huge sovereign debt amid a crippling economic crisis, alleged human rights abuses and political space. highly polarized.
At the center of this thorny issue is Zimbabwe’s 2013 constitution, which establishes two types of farmers who can be compensated for both land and farm improvements. Farmers include “indigenous” Zimbabweans or black farmers and farmers whose lands were protected by bilateral investment promotion and protection agreements (BIPPAs).
BIPPAs are agreements between countries designed to protect the investments of foreign nationals. Zimbabwe has 12 such agreements with countries such as South Africa, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and Switzerland, among others.
The Zimbabwean government extended the offer to compensate for land use only to these two groups of farmers, leaving out local white farmers because they are covered by the US $ 3.5 billion compensation agreement signed in July under the Act. Global Compensation (GCD).
The issue of compensation for expropriation has caused a heated and wide debate among political parties, citizens and other actors. The land issue was at the center of Zimbabwe’s protracted liberation struggle led by nationalist movements such as ZANU PF and PF ZAPU through their respective military wings, which led to independence in 1980.
Addressing the press in Harare, War Veterans leader Amos Sigauke said:
“People will not support our cause if they know that we are now giving land back to whites. This is a settlement agreement, which reverses what cannot be reversed. “
“We were not consulted, nor were the spirit mediums who owned the land, the traditional chiefs and the members of Parliament. The question is who needs compensation first, a dispossessed black or a former white settler? asked Sigauke
MDC Alliance Opposition spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere said Daily maverick:
“We recognize the agrarian reform program as a necessary correction of colonial injustices and we note that the approach used to address historical imbalances was not the most desirable, as has been evidenced in the last 20 years.”
“The GCD has been held without the participation of Parliament and key stakeholders, in violation of our Constitution and the rule of law, in particular section 295 (4), which requires that any compensation for previously acquired agricultural land must be evaluated and be paid in terms of an act of Parliament. “
ZANU PF Acting Spokesperson Patrick Chinamasa said Daily maverick:
“Land reform in Zimbabwe is irreversible and as such the MDC and its cohorts should not try to lecture us on the land issue.”
“We started the land redistribution program because the Tony Blair administration decided to ignore our agreements with the former colonial powers on an amicable way to resolve the land issue. Rather, they went to create the MDC, with the assistance of the Westminster Foundation, ”said Chinamasa.
In March, the Land Commission published the Regulations for the Alienation of Land in Place of Compensation (SI 62 of 2020), which provided that these farmers request “the restoration of the title to the parcel of agricultural land that was obligatorily acquired from them for resettlement.” .
With a shared vision, Zimbabwe can overcome the economic crisis that has plagued it since the Mugabe era, but there is no trust among citizens in terms of genuine political freedoms and economic reforms.
MDC Alliance Vice President Tendai Biti, who is also a constitutional attorney, said Daily maverick:
“The government has been handing out land using leases for 99 years. We do not need new laws, but the government has put in place a new legal instrument 62 that says that those from whom we take land, we will return it to their old farms. That is different from giving someone an offer letter. This is a reversal of the agrarian reform program. “
After the so-called “accelerated land reform” in the 2000s under Mugabe, disgruntled former white commercial farmers took their cases to International Courts and won. Since then, the authorities have recognized the victories of the farmers, saying they must “respect the rule of law, property rights and the Constitution.”
Daily maverick spoke with Andy Pascoe, president of the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) in Zimbabwe.
“I think in the future, hopefully once we remove conflict from the land, I am sure there will be opportunities for all Zimbabweans who want to be farmers to access the land.”
Regarding land compensation, “a very small minority are eligible to be land compensated or have their land returned to them, particularly farmers protected by BIPPA or black farmers who consider themselves indigenous who lost their land,” he said. Pascoe.
“Most of the farmers who are white are not considered according to the land law. We are only entitled to the improvements that were on the farm at the time it was purchased, so that is in accordance with our constitution, ”said CFU Zimbabwe President.
Addressing the press on Monday, Zimbabwean Finance Minister Mtuli Ncube said that “returning the land to foreign white farmers through the Global Compensation Deed is an important milestone in restoring trust and cooperation. between former farm owners and the government ”.
Economist Godfrey Kanyenze said Daily maverick that the government had no money;
“This is US $ 3.5 billion and we already have an outstanding debt of a little more than $ 8 billion, 73% of which is in default, so we are no longer paying our external debt.”
Kanyenze said the Zimbabwean government does not have the “fiscal legroom” that other countries have and “the ability to access all lines of credit.”
“It is going to be a difficult task because the government is having trouble meeting many wage obligations to striking civil servants and health workers,” Kanyenze said.
With a shared vision, Zimbabwe can overcome the economic crisis that has plagued it since the Mugabe era, but there is no trust among citizens in terms of genuine political freedoms and economic reforms.
Reports of kidnappings, torture and extrajudicial executions have alienated citizens from each other for political reasons, but the government claims the opposition is allegedly working with foreigners to destabilize the country. DM
