by Grace Chekai
The Government of Zimbabwe has today signed a Global Compensation Deed Agreement amounting to US$3.5 billion with former white farmers, who lost their land during the Fast Track Land reform program that took place in 2001.
The Fast Track Land reform program was effected in order to address the imbalances in land access, ownership and use that had existed in the country before independence.
Speaking during the signing ceremony, which was held at State House in Harare, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Professor Mthuli Ncube said that the compensation of land fulfils President Emmerson Mnangagwa`s words on 24 November 2017, that he would compensate former white farmers according to the laws of the land.
“In his inauguration speech on 24 November 2017, His Excellency the President, Cde Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa announced his commitment to compensate former farm owners according to the laws of the land.
“On 5 March 2018, an Inter-Ministerial Compensation Committee was established with a deadline to conclude negotiations with former farm owners on compensation for improvements by 30 September 2018,” said Minister Ncube.
Minister Ncube said that the voting by former owners in a referendum on the Government`s offer of US$3.5 billion compensation for improvements ended on the midnight of 24 July 2020. He said out of the 2 963 responses received in the referendum, 2 801 (94.5%) accepted the Government`s offer.
The parties to the proposed Global Compensation Deed are Zimbabwe (represented by the Minister of Finance and Economic Development), the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) of Zimbabwe, the Southern African Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) of Zimbabwe, the Southern African Commercial Farmers Alliance (SACFA), and the Valuation Consortium (Private) Limited (Valcon).
More than 4 000 farmers lost their land during the Fast Track Land reform program, which started in the early 2000s. When the New Dispensation came into power in November 2017, it promised to compensate these farmers on the basis of improvements on their farms.
Last year, some former white farmers were compensated by Government to the tune of $64 million, the remaining farmers are going to be compensated under the Global Compensation Deed Agreement.
