eBusiness Weekly
HARARE – Farmers representatives on Tuesday lauded the government for embarking on processes to compensate white former commercial farmers whose land was compulsorily acquired for resettlement of previously deprived majority blacks.
The sentiments come in the wake of the on-going registration of white farmers who owned land that the government compulsorily acquired for resettlement.
The exercise is expected to be completed by the end of this month.
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union (ZCFU) president Shadreck Makombe told New Ziana that compensation of white former commercial farmers would settle property rights and security of tenure issues associated with Zimbabwean land.
“Compensation will put to rest the challenges we have been having. For instance we cannot export some of our produce into certain markets because they argue that they cannot buy what was grown on contested land. So this will remove the issue of contestation and bring legitimacy to current landholders as there will not be property rights and security of tenure claims because tacitly, the land question has been put to rest,” he said.
A section of Zimbabweans have expressed dismay over plans by the government to compensate the white farmers for developments on their previously owned land.
But Makombe said the new Zimbabwean Constitution recognised the need for compensation.
“Naturally, compensation should be effected,” he said.
Paul Zakariya, director of the Zimbabwe Farmers Union concurred with Makombe saying compensation concluded the country’s land reform programme.
“This makes sure that the land reform process has been brought to a logical conclusion because the outstanding issue has always been to do with compensation. Once we start doing that then we are instilling confidence to investors who want to invest in our land,” he said.
On market rejection of local produce, Zakariya said it had been going on for a long time now.
“Finalising the land reform issue means those currently on the farms can enjoy market access,” he said.
In the late 1990s, Zimbabwe embarked on a historic land reform programme where the government compulsorily acquired vast tracks of prime agriculture land that was owned by a few white commercial farmers to resettle over 300 000 landless blacks.
The commercial farmers, who were mainly white, later demanded that they be compensated for improvements that they had made on the land, a process that took long to take off due to lack of resources.
But in the 2019 budget, the government set aside RTGS$53 million (about US$17.7 million) to commence the compensation programme, which requires an estimated US$1 billion in total. – New Ziana
