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More than 1,300 former white commercial farmers have reportedly signed a revised compensation agreement with the Zimbabwean government after re-negotiations stalled following a June 2023 proposal.

Announced by Professor Mthuli Ncube, the country’s Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion minister, the ‘new’ deal will see farmers receive compensation for any improvements they made to the farms they occupied until the disastrous land reform programme in the early 2000s.

The government entered into an agreement with the farmers in April 2021 to pay $3.5 billion, known as the Global Compensation Deed. Under the original agreement, the farmers would have received half of the compensation within the first year, with the remaining to be paid in four annual instalments.

The original deal was signed by two representing unions, the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) and The South African Commercial Farmers Union. According to the unions, the deal had the support of 2,759 farmers, representing 95% of those affected by the ‘land reform’.

The Zimbabwean government however had some issues securing the promised funds, and in June 2023, the unions rejected the original deal.

In the 2025 Budget Strategy paper, the Zimbabwean Finance Minister said that more than 1,300 farmers have since expressed a willingness to sign the new deal. While the nation’s government reckon the new plan is fair, Dr Theo de Jager of Saai, says it’s nothing but “propaganda”.

“This announcement simply does not make sense,” said De Jager.

“Between Saai, the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union and the Southern African Commercial Farmers Alliance, we represent the vast majority of the 2 500 white farmers who fell prey to land seizure. So, the number of 1 300 farmers who allegedly accepted the agreement makes no sense. The rest of the affected farmers consistently refused the state’s offer of compensation in the form of government bonds.”

The Zimbabwean government began ‘acquiring’ approximately 5,000 white-owned farms at the beginning of the millennium in what it described as ‘redressing the colonial past’. The international fallout, mostly from ‘Western nations’ resulted in severe sanctions being imposed on Zimbabwe’s ruling party members, most notably President Mugabe, who was still hanging on to power at that stage.

There were great expectations following Mugabe’s death for a deal that would be embraced by all those impacted by the land grabs, but it appears his dodgy legacy will continue reverberating for some time.

[source:farmersweekly]