Zimbabwe’s displaced white farmers are seeking US support over unpaid compensation

Farmers' unions engaged a US lobbying firm late last year to raise the issue in Washington, according to a public disclosure filing. The move aims to secure progress on compensation that has remained unresolved for years.

The government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa agreed in 2020 to pay $3.5 billion in compensation to about 3,500 commercial farmers who were evicted during the early 2000s land reform programme. The programme led to the seizure of about 4,000 farms without compensation under former President Robert Mugabe.

Zimbabwe, which is burdened by $21 billion in debt, has struggled to meet the terms of the agreement. In 2023, the government revised its offer to provide 1% of the compensation in cash, with the remainder to be paid in US-dollar-denominated Zimbabwean treasury bonds carrying 2% interest.

Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube told AFP that nearly 1,000 farmers have signed up to the revised arrangement, and several hundred reportedly received some cash and bonds last year. However, the payment process has been slow and unclear, and many farmers have rejected the new terms.

Outside intervention is “not necessarily a bad thing,” Ncube said in reference to reports that the farmers had hired Mercury Public Affairs, a US firm with ties to the Trump administration.

“We are committed to paying, and if they are trying to get other people to get us to pay, we have no problems with that,” Ncube said.

“We are paying anyway, and we would like to pay faster,” he added.

According to a letter in a US Department of Justice disclosure filing, four groups representing former commercial farmers hired the firm to support efforts to secure “full compensation”.

The group would contact administration representatives “to promote paying the Zimbabwean farmers the remaining balance of $3.5 billion owed,” the letter stated. The filing indicated that new financing could be sought from international institutions such as the World Bank.

Many of the affected farmers are now in their 70s and 80s. Some face financial challenges, according to Harry Orphanides of the Property and Farm Compensation Association, one of the groups involved.

“It’s a serious strain on the farmers, especially those who are elderly and have no other sources of income, as they were completely dependent on farming,” Orphanides said.

“Some of them are really desperate,” he added.

The land reform programme aimed to redistribute land that was largely owned by the white minority to black subsistence farmers. The process included violent farm invasions in which farmers were killed. Some farms were later taken over by government officials or ruling party affiliates, while others were neglected. The disruption to the agricultural sector affected the broader economy and contributed to food shortages.

Under the 2020 Global Compensation Deed (GCD), the government agreed to compensate farmers for infrastructure and improvements made on the land, but not for the land itself, which authorities consider to have been taken during colonial settlement.