Zimbabwe’s finance minister, Mthuli Ncube, says the country is on course to meet a 2028 target for compensating White farmers whose land was expropriated.
In 2019, Harare agreed to compensate 94 farmers from countries that had Bilateral Investment Protection Agreements (BIPPAs) with the Zimbabwean government when the farms were repossessed in the early 2000s as part of a land-reform programme.
BIPPAs are treaties between two countries that aim to protect and promote investments made by citizens in each other’s countries. The 94 claimants are from Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the former Yugoslavia.
According to Ncube, a number of farmers received payments in the first week of January from the $20 million of budget funds the government had set aside for this purpose late last year. He said the target is to clear the outstanding debt of $146 million by 2028.
The compensation programme has caused mixed reactions across Zimbabwe and beyond. Several political figures, such as South Africa’s Julius Malema – leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters party – say the exercise is tantamount to capitulating to the West’s bullying. Others are more sympathetic, arguing the government could hardly act otherwise after over two decades of Western sanctions that have wounded the economy and forced millions of citizens to leave the country.
Sources:
https://www.zimfa.gov.zw/index.php/bippas/list-of-ratified-bippas
https://x.com/Sophie_Mokoena
https://x.com/zimlive/status/1889558258672660669
https://www.voanews.com/a/zimbabwe-to-pay-displaced-foreign-white-farmers/7972468.html