WHITE farmers in Zimbabwe, who were evicted from their
properties years ago, have been experiencing a drop in food production, and
their hope to get government financial help to compensate any losses caused by
land seizures is slowly dimming, according to some activists.
newsweek
“We do want compensation for our losses, but not under the
current very poor terms that they are offering.”
“The average age of farmers at the peak of the land reform
was around 55. Now the vast majority are over 70 and many are unable to work.
Thus the need for settlement is very real. Sadly, many have died without
settlement and others are facing extreme hardship,” Ben Gilpin, director of the
Commercial Farmers Union, according to a report from South African newspaper,
Sunday Times, published this week, said.
In 2000, war veterans evicted at least 4 500 white farmers.
They need at least $72 million in reparations, given that the effects of farm
seizures are still felt to date, the publication reported.
Ben Freeth, a former white farmer who was kicked out of his
citrus farm in 2009 and is now a land-rights activist, said farmers had taken
small compensation packages from the government out of desperation.
“We do want compensation for our losses, but not under the
current very poor terms that they are offering,” he said.
“This has been paid overtime and is only worth a fraction
of what it should be.”
Freeth also added that the payment for nearly 200 farmers
in 2009 was in Zimbabwean dollars, meaning that it was discounted against
market valuations.
Furthermore, a group of farmers had approached the
government for compensation since 2009, because they had gotten poor or their
health had seriously deteriorated, according to the Times, citing Gilpin.
Following the fall of long-time leader Robert Mugabe,
President Emmerson Mnangagwa told a crowd of white voters prior to his victory
during the July 30 elections that he would not take their land away, a clear
departure from Mugabe’s policies; who instilled a land reform campaign to seize
farms from white farmers, South African newspaper Mail & Guardian reported
at the time.
Though his speech was received with praise among Zimbabwe’s
white population, farm activists are still skeptical about his campaign
promises.
Despite the government allocation of nearly $3 million in
reparations, Gilpin told South Africa’s website Eyewitness News last month
said, while this is a sign that the government had not forgotten about the
displaced farmers, the money earmarked for compensation should be much higher.
However, the government is still in dire financial straits, making it very
unlikely to reach a larger sum.
Farm distribution has sparked a racially charged debate in
South Africa as well. The ruling African National Congress had promised to
redistribute wealth among the population, and it has included a constitutional
amendment to allow the government to expropriate land without making any
payment, The Washington Post reported.
The same publication went on to say that white farmers
still own the most profitable farms and estates.
A Bloomberg report found that the discussion over land
expropriation had affected the farming industry, as confidence had dropped to
nearly 45% — the lowest since 2006 — and land prices reached $672 per hectare
in July, down from $990 in December 2017.
In August, United States President Donald Trump tweeted
that he had asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to “closely study the South
Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations, and the large scale killing
of farmers,” shortly after Fox News aired a report that the South African
government “was taking farms from white farmers”. However, this claim is not
true, USA Today reported.
In response, the South African government lashed out at the
president, saying in a statement that “South Africa totally rejects this narrow
perception which only seeks to divide our nation and reminds us of our colonial
past.”
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