ZANU PF sticks to same old tune on land compensation
By Nomalanga Moyo
06 May 2013
The Zimbabwe government has indicated that it would consider compensating
white commercial farmers whose land was confiscated during the land
invasions – but only if the West pays for it.
Diplomatic sources told the Mail & Guardian newspaper last week that
President Robert Mugabe had indicated to two visiting American envoys that
Zimbabwe was “willing to reopen talks about compensation but money promised
by the British and Americans in 1979 was critical to any settlement.”
According to the newspaper, Mugabe revealed this during “closed-door”
meetings held with American civil rights leaders, Andrew Young and Jesse
Jackson, during which they discussed a range of issues, including land.
The meetings are part of a diplomatic offensive by the west to re-engage
Zimbabwe, which kicked off with a major re-engagement conference held in
London in March. At that gathering ZANU PF’s lead negotiator, Patrick
Chinamasa, reiterated his party’s position that compensation for land could
only come from the West, and in particular the British.
During his visit to Zimbabwe three weeks ago former UN ambassador Young
reportedly told a discussion, hosted by political and economic institute the
Sapes Trust, that his greatest concern was “why Britain and the US
government reneged on funding the land issue. When nothing was done,
Zimbabwe did what it could under the circumstances”, he said, according to
the Mail & Guardian newspaper.
Hard on the heels of Young, Jackson emerged from a two-hour meeting with
Mugabe and was quoted as saying that “the land issue was a source of
tension. Some focus on land was not honoured and [this has] been a source of
struggle.”
Speaking to SW Radio Africa, respected journalist Jan Raath said the
discussions regarding land compensation between Mugabe and the Americans
were all ‘jaw jaw’, and he did not see these yielding any concrete results.
He said: “To start with, the Americans were never really involved in the
land issue after the Lancaster House negotiations. After Lancaster House the
land issue became very much a British programme and I do not see why the
Americans would want to get involved now.
“Where will they get the money from? The western governments are highly
unlikely to take up the burden of compensating the farmers,” Raath told us.
Raath said there is little chance the issue of land will be amicably
resolved under the ZANU PF government, because that is how the regime
designed the programme and they were happy with things as they are.
“The same applies to the issue of the security of land tenure, there is no
security whatsoever and ZANU PF can withdraw the land at any time. It makes
people dependent on the regime. It gives them (ZANU PF) power and they won’t
be willing to forego this power,” Raath said.
He added that the issue will continue to pose huge problems for anyone who
succeeds ZANU PF: “Correcting past wrongs will be well beyond the capacity
of any new government and they will have to just concentrate on reviving the
agriculture.”
Zimbabwe’s Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) confirmed to the media that they
were negotiating with the government and the West over compensation for
former farmers.
Estimates for the compensation bill for the more 4,500 former commercial
farmers now stand at $6 billion, up from about $2 billion, including
interest accrued over the years.