By Staff Reporter
A group of former white farmers who were displaced during the 2000s land reform programme has rejected the government’s dollar-bonds compensation deal, citing that it is reliant on “very uncertain and very high-risk” long-term payouts.
Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube recently revealed that treasury bonds worth US$308 million and cash payments had been made to former white farm owners. Receipt of the payments was confirmed by ex-Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) leader Andrew Pascoe, whom the group now says was voted out in 2024 after agreeing to a deal they had rejected.
Ncube last week said after the cash payment the balance will be paid in treasury bonds with a 2% coupon and maturities of two years, which the former white farmers Compensation Steering Committee (CSC) has rejected.
Angus Selby, a representative of the CSC said “these bonds do not clear the debt but merely convert displaced farmers (Title Deed Holders) into bondholders reliant on very uncertain, very high-risk, very long-term payouts.”
The payments are under the Global Compensation Deed (GCD) signed in 2020, where government agreed to pay a discounted US$3,5 billion to the former white farm owners.
The acting chairman of the former white farmers CSC Deon Theron said, “the overwhelming majority of farmers supported this deal in a survey at the time but, to date, almost five (5) years on, nothing has been paid per this agreement.
“Instead, in 2023 the government offered an alternative payment schedule in Government Treasury Bills over ten years heavily weighted towards years 5-10, a token 2 percent interest rate was added which compares to regional USD interest rates of 10-20%.
“The revised offer was put to the farmers in April 2023 via a formal survey in which it was rejected by the majority of farmers. Whereas 3100 voted in favour of the 2020 proposal, only 782 voted for the adjusted offer in 2023.”
He added that the few farmers who have accepted the government’s deal did so because they are destitute and in urgent need of money for food and healthcare.
Theron revealed this was clearly communicated to the government in an official correspondence.
“Despite this rejection, the government pushed ahead with the revised offer that became known as the Farmers Compensation Agreement (FCA) in which 378 farms have now (nearly two years later) received initial payments of 1% of their share of the discounted offer.
“The bottom line is that government’s recent payments represent a tiny fraction of the GCD’s $3.5 billion which is already a substantial discount on the actual value of the properties, and these payments have reached fewer than 10% of farmers,” stated Theron.
“The FCA was originally presented as interim relief payments for distressed farmers, but is now being repositioned and repackaged as a comprehensive compensation solution.
“This is simply not the case.”
The Land Compensation Committee approved compensation for 740 former white farmers, which the former white farmers’ committee says is only a fraction of the over 4,500 who were displaced by the land grabs.
“In reality, only a small token payment has been made and thousands of farmers, the significant majority by number remain uncompensated,” Theron said.
Later former President Robert Mugabe pioneered the land reform programme in 2000 which saw violent evictions of more than 4000 white farmers.