444 former white commercial farmers cleared for compensation, says Mthuli Ncube

Finance and Investment Promotion Minister Mthuli Ncube, today met ambassadors of countries that are part of debt talks, and he updated them on the government’s farm compensation plans.

He disclosed that about 444 farms have been cleared for compensation adding that government will pay US$35 million from the 2024 budget to start the payments, which are a total of US$351.6 million.

This compensation is for improvements on the acquired farms, and not for the land itself.

Key points:

· Govt will pay US$20m for 94 farms that were protected by investment protection agreements, BIPPAs. The total compensation agreed for these properties is US$196.6m.

Compensation for these, according to the law, is for both the land and assets. The payments will be only to farmers from countries that had BIPPAs in place in 2000 (Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands and the then Yugoslavia).

Land compensation and tradeable tenure are key steps demanded by countries negotiating a debt deal for Zimbabwe. The country owes US$12.3 billion to foreign creditors.

Zwnews