Dispossessed ex-commercial farmers decry discrimination
Independent
20/3/2020
NYASHA CHINGONO
WHITE commercial farmers who lost their land during the chaotic agrarian reforms in 2000 have bemoaned the government’s preferential treatment of foreign farmers who are being compensated for lost land.
This comes after it emerged that the government compensated 11 dispossessed Dutch farmers by awarding them US$19 million following successful arbitration.
The white ex farmers, who were offered a paltry ZWS53 million when Finance minister Mthuli Ncube presented his 2020 budget last year as temporary relief, say the compensation was decimated by inflation which has now breached the 500% mark (year-on-year).
About 700 farmers received ZWS55 000 each while 100 farmers are still to get the temporary relief.
However, by the rime the temporary relief was disbursed to the 700 farmers, inflation had already eroded the value of the compensation.
The compensation was mainly given to desperate old farmers who are in a precarious financial position, the Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) says.
Government has paid USS19 million to 11 former Dutch farmers who lost their land under the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements (Bippas) during the 2000 land reform programme.
The farmers won an arbitration ruling in Paris last year.
Government last year began rectifying Bippas that were violated during the fast-track land reform exercise when the then president Robert Mugabe repossessed land after Britain abrogated its responsibility to fund the land reform programme.
A Bippa is a legal instrument that establishes specific rights and obligations to meet the primary purpose of protecting foreign investments against discriminatory measures like policy inconsistencies by the host state.The CFU, however, says local farmers should be treated the same as foreign farmers.
“The Dutch claims were settled. They treat us local farmers unfairly,” CFU president Ben Gilpin told the Zimbabwe Independent.
Gilpin said the government should not discriminate against local farmers who also lost farms during land reform.
He said the white ex-farmers were willing to work with government to provide the skill and knowledge in a bid to restore the country’s food security.
“To discriminate that you are a white or black Zimbabwean is simply unfair. The measures that have been extended to Bippas, should be the same with former white commercial farmers,” Gilpin said.
Zimbabwe has to date rectified Bippas with Denmark, Germany, Switzerland and Netherlands, among other countries, as it desperately moves to re-engage the West.
Moves by the government to rectify the Bippas are largely viewed as a major step towards re engagement after Zimbabwe was vilified for failing to respect property rights.
In a bid to rectify the ills of the fast-track land reform, government has since 2018 moved to compensate former commercial farmers by awarding temporary relief to the vulnerable members of that community.
“In 2018, we asked government that the money be shared among the vulnerable farmers, but 100 farmers have not been paid. Although there was goodwill, the ZW$55 000 has not done much. There are desperate farmers who are waiting for the ZW$55 000,” Gilpin said.
“What you see in the press is a situation where the white farmers are excluded. Government is protecting the Bippas.”
According to the CFU, full compensation will cost the government US$10 billion, an amount way beyond the capacity of a government struggling to turn around a rapidly deteriorating economy.
While President Emmerson Mnangagwa has maintained that the land reform programme would not be reversed, government has been engaging the white ex-farmers in joint ventures in a desperate bid to boost agricultural production. A total of 7,7 million Zimbabweans are facing severe food shortages this year.
Many former white commercial farmers have not taken up the offer as they view it as “high risk” business.
Some white farmers believe the joint ventures are being used to get indigenous farmers out of debt. Many indigenous farmers resettled under the land reform programme have accumulated debts with local banks over the years and have failed to repay.
Zimbabwe’s government is also considering offering land as compensation for nearly 800 farms it seized, according to regulations published last week.
“The object of the regulations is to provide for the disposal of land to persons entitled to compensation,” reads the Government Gazette.
Lands minister Perrance Shiri requested written questions on Tuesday, but had not responded by the time of going to print.