Evicted white farmers become destitute
Saturday, 24 July 2010 16:17
SOME white commercial farmers who accepted compensation from the government
after their farms were seized under the violent land reform programme are
now destitute, farmers’ representative bodies have said.
An estimated 200 out of the 4 000 white commercial farmers that were in the
country in 2000 have so far been compensated.
But the Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) said the majority of those
compensated got less than 10% of the real value of their properties.
“Most of those who accepted the compensation were elderly people who were so
desperate,” said CFU president Deon Theron. “But now some of them are
destitute because they quickly exhausted the paltry compensation they were
given during the Zimbabwe dollar era.”
Some are living with friends while others are being housed by charitable
organisations.
The Southern African Farmers’ Alliance (Safa) concurred saying those who
took the offer were desperate because they had nothing to live on. Others
wanted to leave the country.
Most feared for their lives after traumatic experiences at the hands of war
veterans, who forced them to flee their farms.
Chris Jarrett, the chairman of Safa last week said some of the farmers were
sick and wanted money for medication.
He described the payments as “extortion”.
“We heard of another couple with a small property in the Midlands who
accepted what was offered as they were ill and destitute and desperately
needed money for their medical bills,” said Jarrett.
“To get an idea of the pitiful compensation government was prepared to pay,
a farmer in Inyathi was offered what could then buy a very old second-hand
pick-up truck as ‘fair’ compensation for 19 000 thousand acres which was
fenced and paddocked, also having a homestead, boreholes, pumps,
outbuildings and cattle handling facilities.”
Others, said Jarrett, accepted the compensation because they were leaving
the country permanently. Efforts to get specific amounts of what the farmers
got were fruitless as farmers’ representative bodies said they needed
consent from the affected individuals.
But some of the white commercial farmers have not lost hope of regaining
their properties or at least getting fair compensation.
BY OUR STAFF