The Zimbabwean government will compensate white farmers who were forcibly removed from their land more than 20 years ago in a bid to mend ties with Western nations that have sanctioned it over human rights abuses.
Zimbabwe Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said the government would disburse $3.1 million to 740 white farmers who lost their land during a resettlement campaign in 2000 and 2001 aimed at relocating 300,000 Black families. About 4,000 white farmers were displaced under orders from former President Robert Mugabe, who justified the evictions as redress for colonial-era land inequities. Zimbabwe gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1980.
“One of our commitments as we try to reform the Zimbabwe economy, to clear our arrears, is really to compensate the former farm owners who lost their farms during the land reform program,” Ncube told the BBC. “We have now begun to honor that agreement.”
The $3.1 million payout represents 1% of the $311 million the government agreed to pay the first group of farmers under a 2020 deal brokered by President Emmerson Mnangagwa. So far, 378 of the 740 farmers have received their funds. The remaining compensation will be paid through treasury bonds.
The compensation does not cover the value of the land itself — which the government argues was originally seized unfairly by colonists — but rather the cost of buildings and infrastructure the white farmers had.
Most farmers, however, have not signed the agreement and continue to hold on to their title deeds.
In February, Zimbabwe paid out $20 million to foreign farmers from Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and a few countries in Eastern Europe who lost their land, which was protected by bilateral agreements.
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For more than two decades, Zimbabwe has faced sanctions by the United States and other Western countries over the violent eviction of white farmers, which were widely condemned as human rights abuses. The government is now seeking to repair relations with the West and reengage with the international community.
Mnangagwa has shown support for several of President Donald Trump’s controversial decisions, such as his efforts to deport illegal immigrants; he agreed to slash tariffs on U.S.-imported goods to zero in response to Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs.
