'Crisis' hit Zimbabwe wants white farmers back – report

Source: News24, 16/07/2015

Cape Town – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's government has
reportedly indicated, for the first time, that it may hand back land
to some white farmers whose farms were forcibly taken away from them
during the height of the country`s controversial land reform programme.
This comes a decade and a half after the Zimbabwean government seized
large swaths of land from white farmers in the country - a move that
saw a drastic deterioration in the country's economy.
According to The Telegraph, Minister of Lands Douglas Mombeshora said
provincial leaders had been tasked to come up with names of white
farmers they wanted to remain on their farms. The farms should be "of
strategic economic importance".
"We have asked provinces to give us the names of white farmers they
want to remain on farms so that we can give them security of tenure
documents to enable them to plan their operations properly,"
Mombeshora was quoted as saying.
Compensation process
The report said those who benefitted from the land grabs will in
future be expected to pay a small rental per acre, which will be used
to pay compensation to evicted white farmers.
Fin24 reported late last year that Mugabe`s administration was willing
to compensate white farmers and to clarify its indigenisation laws.
Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa was quoted at the time as saying
that government was seeking resources to implement the compensation of
white commercial farmers.
"...we have an obligation under the constitution of Zimbabwe to
compensate white farmers who lost their land during the land reform
programme. It is not out of intention that we are delaying to
implement the compensation process, but rather an issue of scarce
resources which are needed to fully carry out the programme,"
Chinamasa was quoted as saying.
Landless blacks
The latest developments are seen as a U-turn in the southern African
country`s land policy after Mugabe vowed last year that whites will
never be allowed to own land in Zimbabwe.
Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party launched the land reforms in 2000, taking
over white-owned farms to resettle landless blacks.
Mugabe said the reforms were meant to correct colonial land ownership
imbalances.
At least 4 000 white commercial farmers were evicted from their farms.
The land seizures were often violent, claiming the lives of several
white farmers during clashes with veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s
liberation struggle.
Critics of the reforms have blamed the programme for low production on
the farms as the majority of the beneficiaries lacked the means and
skills to work the land.