Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. The government has no plans to compensate white former farmers with arable land for the improvements they did on their farms before they were compulsorily acquired by the State around the year 2000, a cabinet minister has said.
In 2020, the government signed a US$3.5 billion land compensation deal with white former farmers.
Since the signing of the deal, the government has repeatedly missed repayment deadlines.
The government is looking at long-term bonds and donor assistance to raise the money for the compensation.
Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Minister Anxious Masuka told NewZimbabwe.com on Thursday that the government is not considering using idle land to compensate the former farmers. He said:
We do not want to revisit the history of land in Zimbabwe. The emotions, the bloodshed and all. The fact that we went to war to take this land back.
The long and short of it is that there is no plan to use the same land for compensation of white farmers.
There is no discussion or reasoning along those lines in government. We are instead looking at alternative ways to mobilise resources and we are making so much progress in that direction.
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