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In Zimbabwe, thousands of white farmers were forced from their farms, sometimes violently, between 2000 and 2001 under a government programme of land reform. The seizures were blamed for destroying Zimbabwe’s economy, and ruined relations with the West.
At least 900 white former commercial farmers who lost land during the country’s agrarian reform have registered for compensation as Government intensifies efforts to pay them for improvements they made on the farms.
Zimbabwe was proceeding with the compensation of former commercial farmers who were displaced during the country’s agrarian report despite growing criticism against the policy, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said last week, highlighting that compensation for land improvements was a constitutional obligation.
In the early 2000s their farms were forcefully seized. Over 18 years later, Zimbabwe’s white farmers are still seeking compensation. Now they are suing South Africa for helping Robert Mugabe suppress their case.
The Zimbabwe government will give priority to elderly white farmers when it starts compensating those who lost their properties during the controversial land reforms, the president said in an interview published Sunday.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday defended his government’s move to compensate white former commercial farmers for improvements on farmland seized during the 2000 fast-track land reform programme, saying the decision was a constitutional requirement.
Zimbabwe is to start paying compensation this year to thousands of white farmers who lost land under former president Robert Mugabe’s land reform nearly two decades ago, the government said, as it seeks to bring closure to a highly divisive issue.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government has granted the few remaining white commercial farmers 99-year leases in a bid to enable them to secure financing from banks and to pay rent towards the compensation fund.
Some of the thousands of white Zimbabwean farmers evicted from their land in the early 2000s by President Robert Mugabe’s supporters continue to hold out hopes of one day receiving compensation and returning to the country.
There is an upsurge in attempts to forcibly take over Zimbabwean properties still owned by whites 15 years after the launch of a land reform programme, a Zimbabwe farmers’ union said.