International Zimbabwe: White Farmers in The Former "Breadbasket of Africa" Frustrated as Government Fails to Honor Compensation For Mugabe’s Brutal Land Grab.

[bobStash]

America should pay attention. Imagine a white exodus from the US.

Sign me up. Where we headed?

 

[Cole train]

Sign me up. Where we headed?

China

 

[bobStash]

China

Ah shit. I was afraid of that. Nevermind.

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

I sure hope that’s not in Zimbabwe dollars.

 

[Arkain2K]

I sure hope that’s not in Zimbabwe dollars.

I think using the U.S Dollar in the agreement is like the very first demand from the farmers in that negotiation. They're not crazy.

 

[JoeBidensHusband]

The only way they should ever agree to go back is if they can have their own autonomous state/lands within the country for their own safety and protection

 

[Arkain2K]

$1 million out of the promised $3.5 billion has finally been paid. This gonna take a while.

Two Decades After Land Grab, Zimbabwe Starts Paying Farmers
By Bloomberg | June 24, 2021

Zimbabwe made its first compensation payment as part of an agreement to settle a dispute with White commercial farmers who had their land seized violently two decades ago.

The state-linked Kuvimba Mining House Ltd. transfered $1 million to the farmers as the government asked for a delay in paying the full $3.5 billion compensation it had agreed to a year ago.

While the payment is a fraction of that agreed to, resolving the dispute is key to the country pulling out of the economic stagnation that the seizures, ordered by then President Robert Mugabe triggered. Exports plunged, relations with multilateral lenders were severed, the U.S and the European Union imposed sanctions and Zimbabwe experienced a bout of hyperinflation.

“Government asked that the payments be spread out,” Andrew Pascoe, president of the Commercial Farmers’ Union of Zimbabwe, said in an interview in the capital, Harare, Wednesday. “This represents the first money we have received.”

The farmers were originally to be paid half of the damages agreed to by next month, but the government requested that be put off for 12 months, Pascoe said.

Zimbabwe’s government controls 65% of Kuvimba through a 21.5% direct stake and other shareholding via state entities, including a sovereign wealth fund, pension funds and a special purpose vehicle created for farmers whose land was seized, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said Wednesday. However, there have been contradictory claims about the ownership of Kuvimba’s assets.

The payment was part of $5.2 million given to shareholders.

Under the agreement with farmers, the government proposed selling a 30-year bond on global markets to raise the money, but this has been delayed because of the effect of the coronavirus pandemic.

The state’s decision to make farmers shareholders in Kuvimba and to give others 99-year leases signaled a commitment to settle its obligations, Pascoe said.

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/art...land-grab-zimbabwe-starts-paying-farmers/amp/

 

[jefferz]

John Deere deal revives Zimbabwe mechanisation hopes
Tendai Marima | 24 August 2020​

https://africanbusinessmagazine.com...bwean-farmer-drives-a-John-Deere-tractor..png

And when those tractors break, they won't have the money and/or resources to fix them. John Deere is at the forefront of fighting against your right to repair your own stuff. Fuck John Deere.


Farmers Are Having to Hack Their Own Tractors Just to Make Repairs
Owners are turning to hacked software from Eastern Europe as farm equipment companies won't license it to them directly.

Usually the word "hacking" implies breaking into someone else's data, but farmers are having to hack their own farm equipment just to keep it running, reports Freethink. Companies like John Deere won't license out the software necessary to diagnose and fix their increasingly complex farm equipment, forcing owners to source that software online.
The fight over "right to repair" doesn't just extend to totaled Teslas—it affects what makes it onto your dinner table, too. Crops won't schedule themselves around a 40-mile repair trip to a specific company's dealership. Mother Nature does not care about John Deere's terms of service. Farmers say that they need to be able to repair their own ag equipment on their own terms—either themselves or through independent mechanics—as they have always done.
"In the old days, you needed a wrench, a hammer, and a pry bar," engineer Kevin Kenney told Freethink. "Today, they have invented firmware all over these equipment systems, so you'll need to have software just to get it started, activated and calibrated."
That software is where the conflict lies. The companies that made it would rather keep it proprietary so customers have to return for repairs and maintenance. Owners who just need their equipment to work claim that when they bought a tractor, that should mean that they bought the whole tractor—including the right to fix their own stuff.



John Deere Just Swindled Farmers out of Their Right to Repair
The California Farm Bureau has given away the right of farmers to fix their equipment without going through a dealer.

THE FIGHT FOR our right to repair the stuff we own has suffered a huge setback.

As anyone who repairs electronics knows, keeping a device in working order often means fixing both its hardware and software. But a big California farmers’ lobbying group just blithely signed away farmers’ right to access or modify the source code of any farm equipment software. As an organization representing 2.5 million California agriculture jobs, the California Farm Bureau gave up the right to purchase repair parts without going through a dealer. Farmers can’t change engine settings, can’t retrofit old equipment with new features, and can’t modify their tractors to meet new environmental standards on their own. Worse, the lobbyists are calling it a victory.

The ability to maintain their own equipment is a big deal to farmers. When it’s harvest time and the combine goes kaput, they can’t wait several days for John Deere to send out a repair technician. Plus, farmers are a pretty handy bunch. They’ve been fixing their own equipment forever. Why spend thousands of dollars on an easy fix? But as agricultural equipment gets more and more sophisticated and electronic, the tools needed to repair equipment are increasingly out of reach of the people who rely on it most. That’s amplified by the fact that John Deere (and the other equipment companies represented by the Far West Equipment Dealers Association) have been exploiting copyright laws to lock farmers out of their own stuff.

Repair is a huge business. And repair monopolies are profitable. Just ask Apple, which has lobbied over and over against making repair parts and information available to third-party repair shops. That’s why Big Ag has been so reluctant to make any concessions to the growing right-to-repair movement.

At first blush, last week’s deal between the Farm Bureau and the equipment dealers might look like a win for farmers. The press release describes how equipment dealers have agreed to provide “access to service manuals, product guides, on-board diagnostics and other information that would help a farmer or rancher to identify or repair problems with the machinery.” Fair enough. These are all things fixers need.


But without access to parts and diagnostic software, it’s not enough to enable farmers to fix their own equipment. “I will gladly welcome more ways to fix the equipment on my farm. Let’s be clear, though, this is not right-to-repair,” explained San Luis Obispo rancher Jeff Buckingham. “At the end of the day, I bought this equipment, and I want everything I need to keep it running without relying on the manufacturer or dealer.”

 

[ElKarlo]

Yep F John Deere they are greedy MFers and are abusing this.

 

[Arkain2K]

Zimbabwe may borrow from private creditors to pay evicted white farmers
By Felix Njini and Antony Sguazzin • Aug 16, 2021

Zimbabwe is considering borrowing money directly from private investors to fund the first half of a $3.5 billion (R52 billion) compensation agreement with white farmers whose land was seized two decades ago, a person familiar with the situation said.

Government, which last month appointed London-based Newstate Partners to help it raise the money, needs to secure $1.75 billion (~R26 billion) by July next year to meet its obligations.

Compensating the farmers is key to Zimbabwe’s repairing its relations with the US and other western countries that imposed sanctions on the country after the often-violent land seizures began in 2000. Zimbabwe’s economy subsequently collapsed as exports dwindled, and has stagnated ever since.

While the government is likely to press ahead with publicly stated plans to sell an international bond to finance the compensation accord, that option probably won’t be viable, said the person who asked not to be identified as the information hasn’t been disclosed publicly. A bond would be too expensive and need a guarantee from a multilateral lender that’s unlikely to be forthcoming as Zimbabwe hasn’t paid its arrears on more than $8 billion in debt, meaning it can’t borrow fresh capital from them.

If money is raised from private investors, a special-purpose vehicle could be set up offshore and a portion of the country’s tax or royalty earnings from mineral exports could be diverted into it to repay them over a number of years with interest, the person said. The SPV could also be used as a guarantee to bolster the confidence of potential lenders, they said.

Zimbabwe’s main exports include platinum-group metals, gold and tobacco.

Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube and his Permanent Secretary George Guvamatanga didn’t respond to calls and text messages seeking comment.

https://www.news24.com/amp/fin24/ec...editors-to-pay-evicted-white-farmers-20210816

 

[Hit-N-Run]

Sign me up. Where we headed?

Russia

 

[Fluffernutter]

And when those tractors break, they won't have the money and/or resources to fix them. John Deere is at the forefront of fighting against your right to repair your own stuff. Fuck John Deere.


Farmers Are Having to Hack Their Own Tractors Just to Make Repairs
Owners are turning to hacked software from Eastern Europe as farm equipment companies won't license it to them directly.

Usually the word "hacking" implies breaking into someone else's data, but farmers are having to hack their own farm equipment just to keep it running, reports Freethink. Companies like John Deere won't license out the software necessary to diagnose and fix their increasingly complex farm equipment, forcing owners to source that software online.
The fight over "right to repair" doesn't just extend to totaled Teslas—it affects what makes it onto your dinner table, too. Crops won't schedule themselves around a 40-mile repair trip to a specific company's dealership. Mother Nature does not care about John Deere's terms of service. Farmers say that they need to be able to repair their own ag equipment on their own terms—either themselves or through independent mechanics—as they have always done.
"In the old days, you needed a wrench, a hammer, and a pry bar," engineer Kevin Kenney told Freethink. "Today, they have invented firmware all over these equipment systems, so you'll need to have software just to get it started, activated and calibrated."
That software is where the conflict lies. The companies that made it would rather keep it proprietary so customers have to return for repairs and maintenance. Owners who just need their equipment to work claim that when they bought a tractor, that should mean that they bought the whole tractor—including the right to fix their own stuff.



John Deere Just Swindled Farmers out of Their Right to Repair
The California Farm Bureau has given away the right of farmers to fix their equipment without going through a dealer.

THE FIGHT FOR our right to repair the stuff we own has suffered a huge setback.

As anyone who repairs electronics knows, keeping a device in working order often means fixing both its hardware and software. But a big California farmers’ lobbying group just blithely signed away farmers’ right to access or modify the source code of any farm equipment software. As an organization representing 2.5 million California agriculture jobs, the California Farm Bureau gave up the right to purchase repair parts without going through a dealer. Farmers can’t change engine settings, can’t retrofit old equipment with new features, and can’t modify their tractors to meet new environmental standards on their own. Worse, the lobbyists are calling it a victory.

The ability to maintain their own equipment is a big deal to farmers. When it’s harvest time and the combine goes kaput, they can’t wait several days for John Deere to send out a repair technician. Plus, farmers are a pretty handy bunch. They’ve been fixing their own equipment forever. Why spend thousands of dollars on an easy fix? But as agricultural equipment gets more and more sophisticated and electronic, the tools needed to repair equipment are increasingly out of reach of the people who rely on it most. That’s amplified by the fact that John Deere (and the other equipment companies represented by the Far West Equipment Dealers Association) have been exploiting copyright laws to lock farmers out of their own stuff.

Repair is a huge business. And repair monopolies are profitable. Just ask Apple, which has lobbied over and over against making repair parts and information available to third-party repair shops. That’s why Big Ag has been so reluctant to make any concessions to the growing right-to-repair movement.

At first blush, last week’s deal between the Farm Bureau and the equipment dealers might look like a win for farmers. The press release describes how equipment dealers have agreed to provide “access to service manuals, product guides, on-board diagnostics and other information that would help a farmer or rancher to identify or repair problems with the machinery.” Fair enough. These are all things fixers need.


But without access to parts and diagnostic software, it’s not enough to enable farmers to fix their own equipment. “I will gladly welcome more ways to fix the equipment on my farm. Let’s be clear, though, this is not right-to-repair,” explained San Luis Obispo rancher Jeff Buckingham. “At the end of the day, I bought this equipment, and I want everything I need to keep it running without relying on the manufacturer or dealer.”

Like

 

[Arkain2K]

Zimbabwe Seeks Investors for Dollar-Bond Years After Default
By Ray Ndlovu | September 15, 2021​

Zimbabwe will seek to raise $200 million in a debut domestic U.S. dollar bond sale on its stock exchange in Victoria Falls that trades exclusively in foreign currency, according to Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube.

“We may have it in small tranches, rather than a single big issuance,” Ncube said Wednesday in an interview from New York, where he is on a roadshow to attract investment into the southern African nation. “We might put it in $30 million tranches of about six issuances.”

Zimbabwe is targeting a yield of 6% to 9% on the bonds, he said on Bloomberg Television. Yield-hungry investors in frontier markets are interested in the offering, the minister said.

Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that the bond sale would be for $100 million. In August, Ncube said a debt offering could help meet the cost of a $3.5 billion compensation bill the country is facing after it reached an agreement with White farmers evicted from their land two decades ago.

The so-called “Zimbabwe Global Investor Roadshow” has seen Ncube travel to South Africa and Dubai to court foreign investment. In New York, Ncube will also meet with officials from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, ahead of an IMF visit to Zimbabwe that’s expected next month.

The government has been building up a track record of repaying its foreign debt by making token payments to creditors, including the Paris Club, Ncube said. The country defaulted on payments to the World Bank, the IMF and other multilateral lenders two decades ago.

Coupon Payments

To reduce investor risk, Ncube said revenue that the government earns in U.S. dollars, such as from mining exports, will be ring-fenced to make coupon payments on the debt.

“We also want to source some insurance to further insure the returns for the investors,” he said.

The IMF is expected to make a decision on a new staff-monitored program for Zimbabwe later this year, according to Ncube. The IMF in February 2020 abruptly ended the program saying it had “gone off track.”

The Victoria Falls Stock Exchange also known as “VFEX” was launched a year ago and last week signed a pact with the United Arab Emirates to possibly establish a gold exchange. Ncube sees the exchange helping “deal with gold smuggling and arbitrage,” as well as advertising Zimbabwe’s mineral resources.

A cryptocurrency listing on the VFEX in future is also a possibility.

“We are trying to figure out how to invest in it as an asset class,” he said. The government has no plans to use crypto as a transaction currency, Ncube added.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...e-courts-investors-with-200-million-bond-sale

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Just lulz

 

[Arkain2K]

Zimbabwe repossessing unused land from Black farmers
Land reforms in the early 2000s were meant to readdress colonial legacies, but elite citizens ended up benefitting more.
By AFP | 30 Mar 2022

A large commercial farm sits fallow in the countryside west of Bulawayo in 2008. The government sanctioned former war veterans and ruling party loyalists to invade and occupy white-owned farms.​

Zimbabwe has begun repossessing idle land from Black farmers who benefitted from controversial land reforms two decades ago, according to its Agriculture Minister Anxious Masuka.

People whose farmland is lying unused and those who own multiple farms will lose land, he said on Wednesday. The plots will then be reallocated to aspiring farmers from a waiting list left from earlier rounds of land reform processes.

“Zimbabwe has a finite geographic space,” Masuka said. “We have allocated 99 percent of the land, and the land that I am currently allocating to those on the waiting list is land that I am taking from Blacks, allocating to Blacks.”

The government will not repossess productive farms, he added.

Speaking at the opening of annual tobacco auctions, Masuka said some repossessions had already occurred, but did not give details.

Former President Robert Mugabe launched land reforms in 2000, forcibly removing white farmers and giving their land to Black citizens.

The scheme was supposed to redress the legacies of British colonialism but in practice, many of Mugabe’s close allies ended up with multiple farms.

But many new farmers had little knowledge, training or support, and vast swathes of land became derelict.

Once renowned as a breadbasket, Zimbabwe now suffers from chronic food shortages, while a quarter of a million farmers are on the waiting list for land.

Masuka’s deputy, Vangelis Haritatos, told AFP that the government had also allowed former white commercial farmers to return to some farms through joint ventures.

“We don’t have a set criterion as government,” he said. “What we want is fairness for everyone.”

“We need to take our country to self-sufficiency, in food and nutrition,” Haritatos said.

According to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, some 10 million of Zimbabwe’s nearly 15 million people risk hunger by September after a poor rainy season.

The country has long depended on donors for basic food supplies.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/30/zimbabwe-repossessing-unused-land-from-black-farmers

 

[Arkain2K]

Mnangagwa's govt to mortgage platinum royalties to pay off farmers
by Staff reporter | 07 Aug 2022​

ZIMBABWE will mortgage platinum mining royalties to pay US$3.5 billion in compensation to white farmers whose land was expropriated by the government, moving a step closer to resolving Robert Mugabe's divisive land policy.

This comes after the government said it will double the royalty rate it charges mining companies on the platinum group metals (PGMs) they produce to 5% from January 2023 in a bid to increase government revenues.

"We will honour our promise of paying you [farmers] US$3.5 billion but under the circumstances and in a more realistic way we will pay US$35 million in six months starting January 2023 and another US$35 million in July 2023 to make it US$70million through platinum royalties," Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube told a commercial farmers' meeting last week where he was questioned on the government's plans to settle the debt.

Zimbabwe is saddled with a nearly US$15 billion foreign debt which has affected the country's ability to borrow from multilateral funders.

"With that arrangement we can guarantee you that we will pay the farmers without difficulties," Ncube pleaded with farmers present at the meeting.

Zimbabwe tabled a US$3.5 billion offer to the farmers two years ago, with US$1.75 billion due for payment in July this year while the balance would be paid in instalments of US$437.5 million per year for the next four years.

Ncube admitted that the government had missed the July deadline and would begin payments during the first half of 2023.

The former commercial farmers were given four months to consider the government proposal.

Commercial Farmers' Union president Andy Pascoe: "We did have a meeting last Friday of our farmers with the minister of Finance and the international financial advisors. New negotiable proposals regarding payments were presented to us. We are now in negotiations with government in order to see if we are able to agree on something which is acceptable to our farmers."

The government once again failed to meet its July deadline to pay the remaining half of the US$3.5 billion in compensation to white farmers whose land was seized and redistributed to indigenous Zimbabweans under the fast-track land reform programme.

A CFU executive present at the meeting, Charles Tuff, said: "Let us give the government a chance, four months is not a long time."

During the meeting, the government also offered a 20-year bond that would have seen the authorities paying US$70m per year as compensation for land lost.

The white farmers, most of whom are now over 70 years of age, complained that the compensation will come when they have died. They pleaded with the government for a better plan.

Under the compensation agreement, the government made a commitment to re-pay ex-commercial farmers for improvements undertaken on the land — irrigation, buildings and dams — and not the land itself.

Last year, Treasury announced the appointment of United Kingdom-based Newstate Partners as financial adviser to the agreement with effect from April 2021.

The financial adviser had already commenced work, with the Joint Resource Mobilisation Committee supporting its capital-raising efforts.

Ncube then said Newstate Partners had tabled funding options that include bonds issued domestically (both listed and unlisted), bonds issued into international markets (both listed and unlisted); and listed and unlisted equity and quasi type instruments.

Although President Emmerson Mnangagwa vowed to maintain Mugabe's land seizures, his government believes compensating farmers for revenues lost will help with re-engagement efforts with the West.

The land seizures were one of Mugabe's signature policies that soured ties with the West. Mugabe, who was ousted in a coup in 2017 and died last year, accused the West of imposing sanctions on his government as punishment.

About 4 000 white farmers were evicted from farms during the land redistribution programme in the early 2000s, widely vilified by international observers.

Since the fast-track land redistribution programme was implemented, Zimbabwe has struggled to be self-sufficient while successive droughts continue to undermine the country's food security.

https://bulawayo24.com/index-id-news-sc-national-byo-222117.html

 

[Arkain2K]

White farmers in Zimbabwe live and die with the toxic legacy of Mugabe’s brutal land grab​

Philip Rankin passed away at 65 with no sign of promised compensation for his stolen farm, while others doubt it will ever be paid

By Peta Thornycroft IN JOHANNESBURG | 6 January 2024

Philip Rankin had long hoped for compensation after his family farm in Zimbabwe was seized because he was white, but cancer caught up with him first.

The 65-year-old farmer died in early December, nearly seven years after he was handcuffed and forcibly removed from his farm by truckloads of police from Robert Mugabe’s government.

Like many of the thousands of white Zimbabwean farmers who have faced the same fate since Mugabe’s farm invasions and takeovers began in early 2000, he found life difficult without the land his family had farmed for more than 30 years.

Mr Rankin found work for a few years but then developed cancer. His widow, Anita said: “I hoped he would be well enough for us to take him outside to see the sun one more time. But that didn’t happen.”

She said it was now unclear how she would pay his medical costs. “We did a valuation on our farm and were hoping for compensation but we will think about this after his funeral,” she said.

Many other old white farmers who lost their land are now destitute, relying on charity to survive. While the Zimbabwean government has agreed on paper to compensate them for their losses, they fear their chances of getting money are dwindling as the debt-ridden country has no money to pay them.

Farm invasions by supporters of Mugabe’s Zanu PF party began in early 2000 and ultimately saw them take over more than 4,000 farms.

Philip and Anita Rankin with their flourishing tobacco crop. The farm was taken over by a medical doctor, whose crop failed. The land is now fallow.


Mugabe had promised at independence he would let white farmers keep their land. But his “land grab” started after a new political party, the Movement for Democratic Change, emerged in the late 1990s and put him under huge pressure.

The new party was supported financially by many in the farming sector and seriously challenged Zanu PF at the 2000 general election.

Mugabe needed a sop to keep his more militant supporters on side, and began turning a blind eye to those who wanted to seize white land. Many invaded farms were taken by senior members of Zanu PF, and Mugabe’s wife, Grace, helped herself to at least 20.

Many successful black farmers who bought their properties after 1980 independence were also pushed off their land. At least 10 white farmers were killed and tens of thousands of farm workers lost their jobs.

Zimbabwe’s small but stable economy was wrecked, as was the country’s political and financial reputation.

Then, in 2020, after years of negotiations between several farmers organisations, including the Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU), the Valuation Consortium, which valued assets on seized farms, and the government signed an agreement known as the Global Compensation Deed.

Scepticism and division​

The late Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe with his wife Grace, who became the owner of at least 20 seized farms

Zimbabwe’s government baulked at paying for the land, alleging it had been stolen from Africans, but agreed to pay farmers for the “improvements” they had made, such as roads, buildings, dams and irrigation systems.

The deed committed the government to paying evicted farmers $3.5 billion over five years for these improvements. The farmers, the agreement said, would be paid in US dollars anywhere in the world.

From the start, there was scepticism and division among the dispossessed farmers. Very few farmers were able to see, let alone examine, the compensation agreement before it was signed.

A group of senior farmers became suspicious of the rushed government agreement and sought legal advice from a senior barrister.

Daniel Tivadar, registered at the bar in the UK and Zimbabwe, provided a detailed legal report which showed that the agreement was hugely flawed and said any deal for compensation needed to be put to parliament.

He also noted that the Valuation Consortium would earn almost £100 million from the deal.

“It was a sloppy, amateurish agreement and we therefore did not trust it,” said an elderly farmer who spoke from Harare this week but declined to be identified.

Yet other farmers, especially those suffering from lack of cash since they had to quit their farms, celebrated the compensation deal. Ben Purcell-Gilpin, the long-serving chief executive of the CFU, was not one of them and was so disturbed by the agreement he quit his post.

The CFU, which had been a key organisation for generations of farmers, lost even more members.

‘We are going to get nothing’​

Andrew Pascoe, its current president, who is still farming and has expanded his operations in recent years, did not reply to requests for comment.

In the three intervening years, the government has shown no sign of honouring the deal it signed. Some farmers and other interested parties have, behind the scenes, drawn up a new agreement, details of which began emerging earlier this month.

This new “agreement” says payment for “improvements” would be government bonds over 10 years at 1 per cent interest, which financial experts say would amount to less than 10 per cent of the value of the 2020 agreement,

“We won’t accept that deal,” said a well-known Zimbabwe farmer who asked not to be named. “We know the government cannot or will not pay us. We are going to get nothing so we need to look at other ways of surviving.”



Angus Selby, one of the younger farmers evicted from his land in 2002 and who now lives and works in the UK and US, said: “The government agreed to pay the farmers $3.5 billion over a five-year time frame in hard currency, but have now defaulted three times.”

He said this happened partly because the government could not afford the deal and failed to raise an international bond, and “partly because the poor drafting of the agreement did not include sufficient protection for the farmers”.

“Roll forward three years and there is an attempt to push through a woefully diluted deal in government bonds over a 10-year time frame with only a minority of desperate farmers willing to accept it,” he said.

“Any hope of a proper deal needs to be part of a wider recovery of agriculture and re-establishment of property rights and it also needs to be supported and shared by the international community.”

He also said many had forgotten that white people in Zimbabwe are still prohibited, via the constitution, from owning farm land.

Tony Hawkins, a veteran economist in the country, said: “The IMF has described Zimbabwe as a country in ‘debt distress’ since the early 2000s.

Compensation a low priority​

“In theory it would have been possible to pay $3.5 billion from exports and especially from diaspora inflows of well over $1 billion a year, but the reality is that farm compensation is low in the order of priorities.”

He said the only reason the compensation deal exists is because donors and lenders have said without compensation it would be virtually impossible to attract new capital, except from countries such as China, Iran and the UAE.

The only farmers who received compensation since the land grab were about 350 who negotiated privately with the government. Most did not reveal what they were paid nor how they secured payment.

The government also owes compensation to scores of evicted farmers from several foreign countries with which it had trade and investment agreements.

In the past few years, the Dutch administration sent money to the Zimbabwe government to pay its nationals whose farms were taken by Mugabe’s colleagues and supporters. So far, Zimbabwe has not repaid that loan.

A recent report by local land experts shows that many “new farmers” want title deeds for the land they now occupy so that it has a value which they could use to raise loans from commercial banks or even sell the land.

Farmers whose land was taken after 2000 and who are waiting for compensation all still have their original title deeds, so ownership of land seized after 2000 remains disputed and complex but in reality the state controls that land.

Mr Rankin’s farm was taken over by Sylvester Nyatsuro, a Zimbabwe-born and trained medical doctor who had emigrated to the UK and later became British.

At the time, Dr Nyatsuro denied knowledge of the violence used to enforce his claim to the farm, and said he was allocated the property by the state in accordance with normal legal procedure.

Dr Nyatsuro had no experience in farming and his tobacco crop failed. He returned to the UK after five years. Mr Rankin’s land is now fallow.

White farmers in Zimbabwe live and die with the toxic legacy of Mugabe’s brutal land grab

Philip Rankin passed away at 65 with no sign of promised compensation for his stolen farm, while others doubt it will ever be paid

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[Scerpi]

Before land reform

After

 

[Cielo_]

Movement for Democratic Change.

Sounds familiar

 

[idrankyourbeer]

i come into this thread and see posts from like 10 banned members on the first page and i'm thinking what the hell did i just miss? some shit must have really just popped off in this thread.

i thought i was about to see a massive flame war gone completely off the rails, and i was about to grab some pringles and indulge myself in reading up on this shitshow and then i see the thread is like 5 years old