ZIMBABWE'S PLAN TO PAY WHITE FARMERS CAUSES CONTROVERSY

In October, Zimbabwe's Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube announced that the country would spend $20 million to pay some white farmers whose land was expropriated in early 2000 during its land reform programme.

According to Ncube, only farmers who were citizens of countries with Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements (BIPPA) during the land reform programme would be eligible for the payments. BIPPAs are treaties between two countries that aim to protect and promote investments made by citizens in each other’s countries. Zimbabwe had BIPPAs with Denmark, Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland during the land reform programme.

Since 2019, Zimbabwe has announced plans to compensate some white farmers, causing heated debates across the continent and beyond. Some, such as Julius Malema (@julius_s_malema on X), president of South Africa's Economic Freedom Fighters (@effsouthafrica), say the 2019 decision is tantamount to selling out. Others say Western sanctions have beaten Harare into submission imposed in the wake of the land reform programme carried out to address racially-based land ownership imbalances caused by colonialism.

The two decades of sanctions have left Zimbabwe's economy in tatters, forcing one-quarter of citizens to leave the country just between 2003 and 2013. Sanctions also have forced the government to seek rapprochement with the West under unfavourable terms.

We spoke about this during our end-of-year review podcast. Please watch and add your thoughts in the comments. 

Don’t forget to follow us on Bluesky, Patreon, Rumble, Telegram and X.Sources:https://www.africanews.com/2019/04/12/zimbabwe-land-compensation-malema-slams-sellout-mnangagwa

https://www.news24.com/fin24/international/zimbabwe-fails-to-pay-white-farmers-20241217

https://www.africanews.com/2023/05/15/afdb-working-to-raise-billions-to-compensate-zimbabwes-white-farmers

https://www.herald.co.zw/zim-okays-compensation-for-92-bippa-farms/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3591728/#:~:text=It%20has%20been%20estimated%20that,of%20immigrants%20in%20Southern%20Africa.