from DANAI MWARUMBWA in Harare, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe Bureau
HARARE, (CAJ News) – A ZIMBABWEAN delegation is set to meet representatives of the United States President Donald Trump’s administration on the sidelines of the summit by the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) this week.
The summit scheduled for Washington, ongoing until Saturday, come as Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa is reported to be pursuing a “diplomatic charm offensive” to reset relations with the US in the hope of ending targeted sanctions and unlocking international financing
Zimbabwe has reported it is paying compensation to mainly white farmers dispossessed of land during reforms that started in 2000.
However, the Compensation Steering Committee (CSC), the legally mandated body representing the majority of Zimbabwe’s dispossessed commercial farmers has labelled recent government claims about compensation payments as misleading.
It said the Minister of Finance, Mthuli Ncube made a number of inaccurate claims regarding the settlement of compensation obligations.
“The limited number of farmers who have accepted the Government’s revised deal have generally done so because they are destitute and require urgent funds for food, accommodation and healthcare,” SCS stated.
More than 4 500 commercial farmers lost their homes and livelihoods during state-sanctioned land seizures in the early 2000s.
In July 2020 the government signed an agreement with the farmers, called the Global Compensation Deed (GCD) to pay for improvements made on the land at a materially discounted value of US$3,5 billion.
This discount compared to estimates by the Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) of $10 billion and independent professional valuations of $8,5 billion in 2020 values.
The $3,5 billion negotiated discount in the 2020 GCD agreement was premised on a front-ended 5-year payment schedule in cash of which half would be paid in year 1 and the remainder in four annual instalments.
In 2023 the government offered an alternative payment schedule in Government Treasury Bills over ten years heavily weighted towards years 5-10.
“The bottom line is that government’s recent payments represent a tiny fraction of the GCD’s $3,5 billion – which is already a substantial discount on the actual value of the properties, and these payments have reached fewer than 10-percent of farmers,” stated Deon Theron, Acting Chairman of the CSC and a former President of the CFU.
– CAJ News