Zimbabwe has paid more than $520 million in compensation to former commercial farmers whose properties were acquired under the country’s fast-track land reform programme, a senior government official has said.
Deputy Finance Minister Kudakwashe Mnangagwa told the media that the compensation comprises about $508 million in US dollar-denominated Treasury bonds and US$12.6 million in cash.
“The payments came through after the farmers had accepted and subscribed to the bonds,” Mnangagwa said.
The payments form part of a US$3.5 billion compensation agreement signed in 2020 between the government and former commercial farmers.
Under the deal, Zimbabwe agreed to compensate farmers for infrastructure and improvements made on acquired land, rather than for the land itself.
The compensation process stems from Zimbabwe’s fast-track land reform programme launched in 2000 under former president Robert Mugabe.
Thousands of large-scale commercial farms, most of them owned by white farmers, were acquired and redistributed to black Zimbabweans as part of efforts to address colonial-era land ownership imbalances.
JN/APA