Zimbabwe’s government is to start distributing $20 million as initial compensation to local Black and foreign white farmers whose land was taken from them during the land invasions more than two decades ago.
According to the country’s finance minister, the move is part of a broader effort by the government to revive the country’s agricultural sector.
The compensation is hoped to help pave the way toward reconciling losses incurred during farm seizures ushered in by former President Robert Mugabe.
Mugabe’s government seized thousands of productive farms, the majority owned by white farmers whose ancestors had stolen land from Black Zimbabweans over the course of the colonial period.
As a result of the land reform program in the early 2000s, the country’s agricultural output fell, and its economy suffered.
A group of foreign white farmers and 400 Black Zimbabweans will receive the initial compensation.
Read more here.
