At least 900 white former commercial farmers who lost land
during the country’s agrarian reform have registered for compensation as
Government intensifies efforts to pay them for improvements they made on the
farms.
Government allocated $53 million in the National Budget to
compensate the erstwhile farmers. The registration is being coordinated by the
Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) and the Compensation Steering Committee (CSC)
representing the former farm owners.
CFU director Mr Ben Gilpin yesterday said the registration
was progressing smoothly. “We have about 900 farmers who have responded to the
call and registered,” he said.
“We are now verifying 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 they were yet to face any challenges in
registration. The compensation, only for improvements made on the land, is
being done in accordance with the Constitution and Zimbabwe’s obligations under
the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements (BIPPA). Section
72 of the Zimbabwe Constitution stipulates that where land is acquired for
public purpose, “no compensation is payable in respect of its acquisition,
except for improvements effected on it before its acquisition.”
Further, Section 295 states the only two circumstances
where land is compensated for saying “any indigenous Zimbabwean whose
agricultural land was acquired by the State before the effective date is entitled
to compensation from the State for the land and any improvements that were on
the land when it was acquired; 2. Any person whose agricultural land was
acquired by the State before the effective date and whose property rights at
that time were guaranteed or protected by an agreement concluded by the
Government of Zimbabwe with the government of another country, is entitled to
compensation from the State for the land and any improvements in accordance
with that agreement.”
President Mnangagwa recently said land reform is
irreversible and Government will uphold the Constitution by compensating white
former commercial farmers. Herald
0 comments:
Post a Comment