Paying For the Past

Zimbabwe will begin compensating White farmers who lost their land during violent farm seizures initiated more than 20 years ago under former President Robert Mugabe, a move aimed at addressing both historical grievances and the country’s efforts to restructure its $21 billion of debt, the Associated Press reported.

Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube announced Wednesday that the government has approved more than 440 compensation claims for land, infrastructure and equipment from local White farmers, worth $351.6 million, and 94 claims from foreign farmers, valued at $196.6 million.

However, only $3.5 million will be paid in cash to local farmers, with the bulk of the compensation being issued through treasury bonds. The compensation for the local farmers is not for the land – Mugabe’s government says the land was illegally seized from Zimbabwe’s Black majority under colonialism – but only for infrastructure.

The foreign farmers, such as those from Denmark, Germany and Eastern European countries, will receive an initial $20 million to be shared equally.

The plan is a key part of the 2020 agreement between the Zimbabwean government and White farmers, which seeks to address the economic damage caused by Mugabe’s land redistribution program.

The campaign, launched in 2000 by the Mugabe administration forcibly removed around 4,000 White farmers from their properties in an effort to correct colonial-era land ownership disparities.

These often violent seizures, which saw farms taken over by mobs led by veterans of Zimbabwe’s independence war in the 1970s, led to the deaths of some farmers and their workers, according to Human Rights Watch.

Although Mugabe’s initiative aimed at returning land to Black Zimbabweans, it decimated the country’s agricultural industry, transforming a key regional food producer into a recipient of international aid.

While the agricultural sector has shown signs of recovery, recent droughts present ongoing challenges.

Observers said the compensation is crucial to the country’s efforts to restructure its $21 billion debt after defaulting in 1999, Bloomberg wrote. The compensation deal is a key condition for debt relief.