Staff reporter
Many white farmers who lost their farmland under former President Robert Mugabe’s land reform policy in the early 2000’s, will now be compensated. The move comes in an effort to curb the high divisions.
Approximately 300,000 black farmers received the land from white farmers as a form of redistribution and redressing imbalances from the colonial past.
IOL reports that land reform still divides public opinion as opponents see it as a partisan process that left the country struggling to feed itself.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government sees the paying of compensation to white farmers as key to mend ties with the West, and set aside $17.5 million in this year’s budget to that end. The initial payments will target those in financial distress, while full compensation will be paid later.
“The registration process and list of farmers should be completed by the end of April 2019, after which the interim advance payments will be paid directly to former farm owners,” Zimbabwe’s ministries of finance and agriculture said in a joint statement on Monday.
In a statement on Sunday the Zimababwean government said:
“The completion of the work of the Ad Hoc Compensation Working Group will enable government and former farm owners, in conjunction with cooperating partners, to progress toward closure of the land issue.”
Additional reporting by IOL
