The implications of agriculture in Zimbabwe, 25, on: a deal or not a deal?

After a quarter of a century of seizing their land during a chaotic lands reform program that exports the headlines of international newspapers, a small group of white farmers in Zimbabwe accepted a controversial compensation deal from the government.

Once the backbone of the country’s agricultural sector is, many of them are now elderly, and their weakness is clearly, and the disease fights and is financially desperate.

“I think this is the only opportunity,” Arthur Bessley, 71, told the BBC.

Mr. Bessley was recovering from rear surgery, and was among those who arrived earlier this year to a conference hall in the capital, Harari – with the help of walking sticks and walking tires – to discuss the deal.

Fishing is that these farmers have now been paid only 1 % of their total compensation in cash – where the rest is issued as cabinet bonds that were filed in US dollars that ripen in 10 years – with a benefit of 2 % twice a year.

The land reform program, which was raised by the invasion of white -owned farms throughout the country by the supporters of the late Robert Mugabe, was launched in 2000 by the then President, who was desperate to support political support at the time when Zimbabwe was about 2,500 white farms owned 4000 farms – half the best farm in the country.

The seizures became the largest ground revolution in Africa, and it was supposed to address the lands dating back to the colonial era, when it was forced to leave their lands. But it put the country on a collision path with Western countries – followed by economic sanctions, and companies came out and the economy collapsed.

This compensation deal was paid by Emmerson Mnangagwa president, who is keen to fix the walls. The money that is granted to farmers, as specified by the constitution, is for infrastructure and improvements on the ground – such as buildings and dams, and not the value of the land itself, which the Zimbabwe government insists that it was illegally seized from the country’s indigenous population.

In general, this is estimated at $ 3.5 billion (2.6 billion pounds). However, the total total cash payment was only $ 3.1 million for 378 farms.

Mr. Bessley said that it was not the best deal, but it was reasonably fair – and his decision to accept it came with the realization that the acquisitions cannot be retracted.

“It was difficult for my family at the beginning, but life continues, you have to move forward,” adding that he would start selling some bonds immediately to compensate for medical bills and to the sick parents.

It is a major transformation, softening the solid lines that both sides drew.

Mugabe used to approach the lecturer in the party’s marches, saying that white farmers should go to the United Kingdom, the former colonial force, to compensate them – although he was quietly pushing chosen farmers.

Meanwhile, the white farmers insisted on a $ 10 billion in full cash settlement. Both sides settled on the number $ 3.5 billion.

However, unlike Mr. Baisley, the majority of white farmers hold a deal that would see all paid money in advance.

Dion Theron, who was forced in 2008 on the farm that bought after independence, leads more than 1,000 farmers who rejected the offer.

His property boxes, which were hurriedly packed during his departure, filled his balcony in Harari, where he told me that the deal was not fair because there was no guarantee that the bonds would be honored within 10 years.

The 71-year-old said it is clear that the government did not have money-and he wanted to see the international community, including the United Kingdom, helps in negotiations as the government was refusing to budging, or even interviewing the opposition group.

“The British cannot go and sit in the wing and see what is happening because they are part of it. They are linked to our history. They cannot get away from it,” he told the BBC.

In a mediation agreement in the period leading up to independence, the United Kingdom had to support land reform financially – but it stumbled in the end of the 1990s when the Labor Party government reached power and relations.

The need to re -engage Britain to this compensation was the cry of the battle for many of the veterans who led the farm conquests. They fought in the 1970s war against the rule of the white fly – and they felt weak and slow the frequency of land reform after independence.

But like white farmers, the veterans in the war are divided into dealing with the government for compensation.

One faction is to prosecute the government because of the approval of “secrecy” to pay $ 3.5 billion as compensation, saying that the offer should have been agreed upon in Parliament.

One of his leaders, Jodfrey Gorra, said that, given the countless economic challenges that Zimbabwe faced, it should not have a priority for white farmers.

“It is an enormous amount … for a nation of our size. People suffer from that they can barely meet hospital needs, then we have no luxury to pay $ 3.5 billion. In our opinion it is an unnecessary work of calm,” he told the BBC.

The second lawsuit challenges as part of the new land policy that requires new farmers to pay the price of the land in order to obtain ownership actions to own the land directly.

In the wake of the redistribution, 250,000 people were entitled to replace 2,500 white farmers to get only 99 years. However, this means that they could have obtained bank loans because their security was not guaranteed.

Last year, the government said that farmers can apply for their lands directly – with ownership bonds – but they need to pay between $ 100 and $ 500 per hectare (2.47 acres).

This money will go towards the compensation deal for white farmers, according to the government.

Those who challenge this say that forcing black farmers to buy the land effectively contradicts the law.

Black farmers divide themselves on this issue.

The land reform program has achieved mixed results. Many new farmers did not have the skills, finance and work on the farm successfully. But the country’s agricultural sector is now recovering with pockets of successful farmers.

In 2002, Suleiman Ghanaian arrived in a bike to receive a naked plot of 20 hectares in Harari South.

It was part of the sprawling farm with an area of ​​2700 hectares, which was divided among 77 people.

The early years found a conflict – suffering from a lack of financial affairs and climate shocks. But slowly through the Chinese money plowed in the tobacco sector, and after handing over the works to its children – both graduates of agriculture in their twenties – things improved.

They built an enviable institution with 200 permanent workers, and expanded in dairy and livestock cultivation. They are applying for the actions of their land title and gained more in recent years from the government.

Aaron Ghani, his eldest son, told BBC that without a land repair program, his family may not have been able to buy a farm because in the past, the royal structure witnessed vast areas of lands that one family kept.

“I am very happy to be honest, we have taken agriculture to another level because we are now living a good life through agriculture. We do more than white men do in terms of tobacco quality and good paper,” said 25 years old.

“We have invested in technology. It is not easy. I am now motivating more farmers to do a good job here,” he said.

He believes that new farmers should contribute to compensation payments, but based on the value of the infrastructure they inherited.

On the political front, tensions also give up – the UK government has no longer any Zimbabwe on the list of sanctions recently installed by four military and government officials who accused human rights violations.

The Commonwealth and Development Office in the UK BBC was told that this was because they did not return in the positions they occupied at the time it was added to the list in 2021.

However, it is a major development, which is the end of more than 20 years of penalties against Zimbabwe.

The country is now hoped that the problem of farmers compensation will be resolved properly to obtain Western support for the ongoing talks about restructuring its huge foreign debts.

There is no doubt that after 25 years, Calm returned to almost all agricultural fronts.

Agriculture rises, and farmers have sold more than 300,000 tons of tobacco at auction – the highest tobacco production ever.

But a compromise is needed from all sides of the country to fully jump on the obstacle of land repair and its repercussions.