Robert Mugabe to re-possess BIPPA farms
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Staff Reporter 21 hours 1 minute ago
HARARE – The Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs, Patrick Chinamasa says
the government has the right to continue re-possessing land under the land
reform programme.
In rant in Harare Chinamasa also said even farms under Bilateral Investment
Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA), can be acquired on condition the
government can fully compensate the affected owners.
The recent eviction and arrest of 55 farmers, who were allocated A1 plots at
Tavydale Farm after a white farmer destroyed 70 hectares belonging to the
farmers in Mazoe has exposed a lot of issues with newly resettled farmers
questioning the logic of being given offer letters under the land reform
programme but later being evicted from the farms.
The feisty Justice Minister Chinamasa said the white farmer, Mr Mattison
destroyed the maize following a directive by the Minister of Lands and Rural
Resettlement, Dr Herbert Murerwa to stop resettling people on BIPPA farms.
Lands, Land Reforms and Resettlement Minister Hebert Murerwa said this month
the law conferred Government with powers to acquire any land, it had decided
to put on hold acquiring of farms under BIPPA.
Agreements under BIPPA require that Government pay fair compensation in
currency of the former owner’s choice for both land and improvements.
Minister Murerwa said the decision to stop acquiring BIPPA farms was in
respect of the agreement while managing State liability.
He said Government was saddled with a US$25 million debt owed to 40 Dutch
farmers.
The farmers successfully sued at the International Court for Settlement of
Investment Disputes.
“Although under Zimbabwean law, Government can legally acquire such farms,
in view of the ongoing litigation in the ISCID, Government has taken the
decision not to settle persons on farms covered by BIPPA for now,” said
Minister Murerwa.
“Government will abide by the provision of the agreement and at the same
time we do not want to increase our liability.”
Some of the countries covered by BIPPA include Denmark, Germany, Belgium,
Netherlands, Italy, Malaysia and Switzerland.
Minister Murerwa said Government would have to find alternative land for the
affected A1 farmers.
“At Tavydale farm, a decision has been made by myself and the Mashonaland
Central Governor and Resident Minister Martin Dinha that we will not settle
farmers on the property,” he said.
Minister Murerwa said the offer letters issued by Mazowe district
administrator Ms Shelter Nyakudya were done in error.
The issue has since spilled into courts and the High Court of Zimbabwe
Justice Francis Bere in November last year threw out an urgent application
by the white farmer to evict the A1 farmers.
He said the case represents a very sad state on the part of the Minister of
Lands and Rural Resettlement as an acquiring authority.
Justice Bere bemoaned land acquiring authority for sending conflicting
signals to occupiers of Tavydale Farm, saying the approach by Dr Murerwa
does not bring transparency to the whole land reform process in the country.
Meanwhile, officials who spoke on condition of anonymity in the Attorney
General’s offices said the white farmers can be charged with malicious
damage to property as the A1 farmers were legally resettled by government.
On the same note, the Attorney General, Mr Johannes Tomana says the Ministry
of Lands and Rural Resettlement’s failure to evict some white farmers who do
not have offer letters is causing delays in finalising the land reform
programme.
AG Tomana says several cases of white farmers refusing to move out of the
land allocated to newly resettled farmers which are now being heard in
courts, represent a worrying state of affairs on the relevant ministry which
is failing to fully implement the land reform programme.
He said laws of the country are clear that all farmers with offer letters
have the right to move onto farms allocated to them.
The latest statement by the AG comes at a time when several farmers who were
given offer letters are facing resistance from white farmers who are
refusing to vacate pieces of land allocated to the black majority under the
land reform programme.
While the Minister Murerwa agreed that all farmers with offer letters should
take up their land, his ministry has on many occasions come under fire from
offer letter holders for allegedly embarking on a replanning exercise aimed
at downsising the farms to accommodate some of the white farmers.
Sources said there are plans are at an advanced stage by the land acquiring
authority to come up with new maps at several farms.
The already rickety Zimbabwe government of national unity is facing yet
another divisive issue – how to react as international courts rule that the
government must pay millions of dollars to white farmers whose lands are
protected by Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements
(BIPPAs).
Cabinet sources say the Movement for Democratic Change wants the government
to stop seizing land or compensate the farmers. However, hardliners in Zanu
PF say there is no going back on the land reform program.
A German, Heinrich Von Pezold, and other farmers are suing the government
for US$600 miillion.Von Pezold bought a forestry and sawmilling firm, Border
Timbers, which operated 5 forest estates and 3 sawmills.
He also had several tea estates in Manicaland Province, which were forcibly
taken by the government under the land reform scheme.
As Pezold’s purchases were protected by a BIPPA between Germany and Zimbabwe
signed in 1995, the take-over of the Von Pezold properties caused a
diplomatic row between the two countries.
Pezold’s case is now up for arbitration at the International Centre for
Settlement of Investment Disputes in Paris.
Germany has accused Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF ruling party
of betrayal after its senior officials invaded a prime game reserve run by
German investors.
Mr Hans-Gunter Gnodtke, Germany’s ambassador to Zimbabwe, told journalists
in Harare early this month that his country was now considering boycotting
the World Tourism Conference to be jointly hosted by Zambia and Zimbabwe in
August in protest.
Over 25 Zanu-PF officials invaded the 340,000-hectare Save Valley
Conservancy amid threats of additional sanctions by the European Union (EU)
on President Mugabe’s government.
Mr Gnodtke said the conservancy owners in the Save Valley were covered by a
Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) between
Zimbabwe and Germany signed by the Zanu-PF government.
“When we talk of German investors in Zimbabwe, we are talking of those
investors who came here at Zanu-PF’s invitation,” he said.
“We had Zimbabwe ministers coming to Germany inviting Germans to Zimbabwe.
Even President Mugabe came to Germany and invited Germans to come to
Zimbabwe,” he added.
Tourism infrastructure
Authorities have denied foreign operators hunting permits at the vast Save
Valley Conservancy in south-eastern Zimbabwe, but granted land and 25-year
permits to senior members of ZANU-PF under the government’s black
empowerment scheme.
The envoy said the invasions threatened the successful hosting of the United
Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNTWO) conference in Zimbabwe’s resort
town of Victoria Falls and Zambia’s adjoining Livingstone town.
“Let there also be no doubt we have not yet made our decision if and at what
level to participate at that conference,” Mr Gnodtke said.
“But if elements wishing to destroy wildlife and tourism infrastructure in
Zimbabwe protected by an international BIPPA should succeed, this will
seriously affect Zimbabwe’s qualification to host an international meeting
on tourism.
“This is what we have told both the Zimbabwean and Zambian governments. We
hope and pray that common sense and responsibility will prevail and that the
Victoria Falls meeting will be a success.”
The invasions have brought divisions in Zanu-PF with the Tourism minister
Walter Mzembi warning the move will seriously affect preparations for the
conference.
A fortnight ago the government announced that it had stopped the compulsory
acquisition of commercial farms protected by BIPPA after it lost a series of
cases at international courts lodged by dispossessed farmers.
Ranchers under the aegis of the Save Valley Conservancy include foreign
investors from South Africa, Germany, Italy and the United States who are
protected by investment agreements between Harare and their respective
countries.
According to Mr Gnodtke, two German investors have filed for compensation at
the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.
He said that economic co-operation between Zimbabwe and Germany — which was
frozen in 2002 when the EU imposed sanctions on Mugabe and his allies —
would only be restored “once the rule of law and democracy have been
re-established in this country.”