Zimbabwe egg farmers to receive the first compensation payments for land invasions

The Zimbabwe government announced a preliminary payment of $ 3 million (2.3 million pounds) for white farmers whose farms were seized under a controversial government program for more than two decades.

This is the first batch to be held under the compensation agreement for the year 2020 signed between the state and local white farmers who adhered to Zimbabwe to pay $ 3.5 billion (2.6 billion pounds) for the seized agricultural lands.

Thousands of white farmers were forced from their lands, often violent, between 2000 and 2001.

The seizures were supposed to aim to compensate for the seizure of lands in the colonial era, but contributed to the country’s economic decline and its devastating relations with the West.

The batch, which was announced on Wednesday, will cover the first 378 farms, out of a total of 740 owners of the former farmers who were approved to be compensated.

1 % of a total of $ 311 million is allocated for the first batch of payments.

Finance Minister Mthuli NCUBE said that the rest will be paid through the treasury bonds that the United States was exposed to.

“One of our obligations is trying to reform the Zimbabwe economy, to purify our arrears, is in fact compensation for the owners of ex -farmer who lost their farms during the land reform program,” he said.

“We have now started honoring this agreement.”

Harry told the orphans, one of the farmers representatives, BBC that more farmers have now indicated interest in participating in compensation.

However, the majority of the former farmers did not participate in the deal, and are still adhering to their title.

The government only agreed to compensate the former farmers’ owners for the “improvements” that were made on the ground and refused to pay the price of the land itself, on the pretext that the colonists had unlike them.

It was given priority to the farms owned by foreigners under separate negotiations.

In January, Zimbabwe began paying compensation to foreign investors whose farms were protected under bilateral investment agreements.

In 1980, Zimbabwe gained independence, ending decades of the rule of the white fly. At that time, most of the country’s most fertile lands were owned by about 4,000 white farms.

Land reform focuses on the redistribution of white -owned lands for black farmers, after the policies of the colonial era when thousands of black farmers were forced from their lands and the most fertile areas in the country were dedicated to white people.

In 2000, President Robert Mugabe supported land invasions by a mixture of government forces and vigilance groups, which sparked international condemnation.

President Emerson Manangagua, who replaced Mugabe in the 2017 coup, sought to involve Western governments to restore relations.

Mnangagwa has previously said that land reform cannot be reversed, but he is committed to paying compensation as a major way to reform relations with the West.

The southern African country has been closed from the global financial system for more than two decades, leaving the faltering economy with huge foreign debts.

Analysts say that pushing land is an important step in reforming relations with Western countries and avoiding international rulings against Zimbabwe.