ZANU PF admits millions owed to displaced farmers
By Alex Bell
10 December 2012
ZANU PF has admitted that it does have an obligation to pay compensation to
farmers forced off their properties in the land grab campaign, also
admitting it illegally seized many farms.
This was revealed in a Central Committee report tabled before the ZANU PF
Annual Conference over the weekend. The report said that farms covered by
Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements (BIPPAs) were
seized, in contravention of those agreements. These include properties
belonging to citizens from Denmark, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, the
Netherlands and Switzerland. The report detailed that out of 153 BIPPA
protected farms, 116 were taken over under the land grab.
“The agreements require that Government pays fair compensation in currency
of former owner’s choice for both land and improvements for acquired BIPPA
farms. In this regard, Government has an outstanding payment of 16 million
Euros awarded to Dutch farmers,” the report states.
The Dutch compensation claim was filed by farmers who lost land in Zimbabwe
between 2000 and 2002. The group of farmers took their case to the
International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID),
which ruled in their favour in 2009 and ordered Zimbabwe to pay them 8.8
million euros compensation, with an additional 10% interest for every year
since the farms were seized.
The Central Committee report meanwhile said there was no money to pay
compensation.
“The Dutch farmers who took the country to the International Court for
Settlement of Investment Disputes and won have not been paid. In addition, a
German family, the Von Pezolds, has also taken us to the ISCID for their
farm which we acquired and partly resettled. We are framing our defence with
the Attorney General’s Office. The Von Pezolds claim is in the region of
US$600 million.”
The takeover of farms has also continued unabated with the ZANU PF report
saying that more than 200 farmers are being prosecuted for “refusing” to
give up their land.
Former commercial farmer Ben Freeth said the campaign will not end while
there is no outcry from key sectors of Zimbabwean society, namely the MDC
parties in government. He warned that ZANU PF is carrying out “ethnic
cleansing.”
“This is racist. This is apartheid. Zimbabwe will remain hungry and remain
poor so long as this backwards, feudal system is able to persist and no one
does anything about it,” Freeth said.
Meanwhile ZANU PF has finally taken over the farm that used to belong to Ian
Smith, with the Land Ministry handing the property to a college. The
remaining portion of Gwenoro farm was the final part of the property not to
be taken over in over a decade of land seizures.