More than 900 white former commercial farmers have registered for compensation for farms lost during Zimbabwe’s controversial land reform programme, an official said on Friday.
Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) director Ben Gilpin said the former farmers have been responding to a call by his organisation to come and register their claims for compensation for developments they had made on the farms before they were expropriated by the government.
“We have about 900 farmers who have responded to the call and registered,” Gilpin told the state-run Herald daily.
HE said the CFU was now verifying the details with the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement.
“Those people will be notified of the final outcome around the 10th of May and working with the ministry, payment modalities will be known,” he said.
The number that has registered for compensation is however only 20 percent of the more than 4,500 former white farmers who were dispossessed of their land by the government during the early 2000s.
The land was allocated to black farmers under the government’s land reform programme.
The government has allocated US$53 million in the 2019 national budget to compensate the farmers.
The registration is being coordinated by the CFU and the Compensation Steering Committee representing the former farm owners.
JN/APA