Zimbabwe offers compensation to white farmers

Zimbabwe offers compensation to white farmers

A FARMER dons a Zanu PF T-Shirt and hoists a banner during a ceremony at which President Mugabe distributed 99-year leases to new black farmers last week

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By Lebo Nkatazo

THE Zimbabwe government Thursday invited "as a matter of urgency" over 1 000 former white commercial farmers to collect undisclosed amounts of money
as compensation for improvements made on their farms before the land reform exercise.

A handful of blacks and companies also appeared on the list.

But the main farmers' support group described the proposed compensation as "daylight robbery" in the country's hyperinflationary economy.

In a notice published in the state-run Herald newspaper, the Ministry of Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement said payment of the
compensation was being done in terms of the Land Acqusition Act.

The notice said: "The schedule below summarises details of farms whose compensation has been
fixed in terms of section 29B of the Land Acquisition Act. The former
owners or representatives should contact the ministry of Lands, Land Reform
and Resetllement as a matter of urgency in connection with their
compensation."

Notable individuals to be compensated include the father of Zimbabwe's former cricket captain, Heath Streak. His father, Dennis, had his GoodHope farm in
Bubi, Matabeleland North, seized for redistribution to black peasants.

Also due to be compensated is the powerful Rosenfels family who lost Home Farm in Bulilimangwe, Matabeleland South.

But the farmers' group, Justice for Agriculture, representing hundreds of displaced white farmers, said the four-page notice in the Herald was a sham intended to convince outsiders that the farmers were being fairly treated.

In five previous notices, the government had said compensation would not be paid for land, but only for buildings and improvements made on about 5 000 properties seized from white farmers since 2000.

The land was taken in an often-violent programme that the government said was meant to return land taken from blacks during the colonial era.

"It is nothing short of daylight robbery," said John Worsely-Worswick, head of the support group.

Since the land seizure programme began, about 15 000 blacks have received parcels of former white-owned land for commercial agricultural production. Another 141 000 families received small plots.

But, the often-chaotic seizures disrupted Zimbabwe's agriculture-based economy, plunging the former regional breadbasket into its worst economic crisis since independence in 1980.

At more than 1 000%, official inflation in Zimbabwe is the highest in the world, and the country also has acute shortages of food, hard currency, fuel and essential imports.

In the past four years, nearly 300 displaced whites have accepted offers worth 5%-10% of the independent valuation of their farms.

Some had taken the money because "they were destitute and couldn't pay medical bills or put food on the table," said Worsely-Worswick.

Those who accepted compensation offers forfeited ownership and title deeds to their land.

He said independent surveyors had valued one farmer's large cattle, corn and tobacco property at the equivalent of Zim$1m, but he was offered compensation of Zim$20 000 - or about enough to buy a second-hand car or four of the latest cellphones available in Zimbabwe.

The Commercial Farmers Union also said some of its white members had been forced to accept minimal compensation because of their indebtedness and "personal circumstances".

"We are advising farmers to follow up and find out what the situation is so they simply don't lose their 99-year leases to black farmers allocated land seized mostly from white farmers.

President Robert Mugabe described the first 128 leases as a landmark in his redistribution programme that would improve farm production by giving new farmers security of tenure for more than a generation.

The land remains state-owned, but loans for production can be secured against buildings, dams and other facilities on it.

A handful of displaced white farmers are expected to get leases, but not on their former properties, and white farmers' support groups have expressed scepticism about the lease programme.

About 400 white farmers are still working on their original farms, but seizures have continued, with about 30 receiving eviction notice from the government in recent weeks.
Additional reporting AP
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