Christian leaders debate Zimbabwe’s reparations for white farmers
A man working in agriculture in Zimbabwe in 2016. Photo by USAID.
HARARE—Christian leaders in Zimbabwe are cautiously optimistic that a recent government move to pay $3.5 billion compensation to white farmers forced off their land in 1999 can revive a southern African country’s struggling economy by boosting its agricultural sector.
The agreement is largely seen as an awkward ending to a years-long land dispute. Arguing it was addressing colonial injustices, Zimbabwe violently evicted 4,500 white commercial farmers (many now elderly) to resettle black families (about 300,000 people) under an agrarian reform agenda pushed by the then administration of Robert Mugabe in 1999. This caused the international community to pull out investments and aid from Harare as well as impose sanctions after allegations that Mugabe rigged elections. Zimbabwe’s economy has struggled ever since.
The move also comes during increased international attention on President Emerson Mnangagwa administration’s flurry of arrests, abductions and torture of political activists and the detention of journalist Hopewell Chin’ono and author Tsitsi Dangarembga.
Now, nearly three years after Mugabe was ousted from power following a coup that propelled his deputy, Mnangagwa, into power, Zimbabwe has negotiated with those displaced from their commercial land. The compensation is not for the land lost but for machines seized and infrastructure built by the white farmers. As many were forced out of farms, they left behind their harvests, property and implements, some of it bought using loans and advances from banks.
Leaders of various Christian denominations, including the Zimbabwe Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP), have said the signing of the agreement helps resolve a long-standing dispute in Zimbabwe. The former white farmers under the Commercial Farmers Union will be paid half of the $3.5 billion by July next year and the remainder after an additional four years.
Father Frederick Chiromba, who leads the association Heads of Christian Denominations, told Religion Unplugged that church leaders in Zimbabwe have always called for a resolution to the land dispute, which fractured the country. Mnangagwa has explained that he is keen to restore Zimbabwe’s place in the international community, and signing the compensation agreement with former white farmers was a key part of that strategy.
“We support this agreement and we think that it is a way of moving forward to resolve this land question issue which has been divisive in Zimbabwe over the past years,” Chiromba said. His group called for the dispute’s resolution in 2016, he added.
Other Zimbabweans have criticized the compensation. There is a general feeling that this compensation agreement is against what Mugabe stood for although the timeline of negotiations for the agreement show that discussions for the deal started when Mugabe was still in power.
Mugabe died in 2019 after he was removed from power by the military, culminating in 2018 elections that his successor Mnangagwa won under controversial circumstances, with opposition leaders saying he manipulated the outcome of the vote. When Mugabe died, the land dispute had not been resolved but the issue of compensation for farm developments had been etched into a new constitution for Zimbabwe—compensation to the white farmers had become a legal obligation.
Funds for the compensation will be raised largely in the international markets through United States dollar-denominated long-term debt instruments as well as other suitable non-debt instruments and financing structures, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube announced. He added that the white farmers had agreed to work with the government to raise the required funding.
CCJP said it was awaiting more details of the agreement. However, Paul Muchena, spokesperson for the CCJP told Religion Unplugged by phone that on paper, the compensation agreement was a step in the right direction.
“Well, on paper it’s a step in the right direction but there are issues that we do not understand yet because we have not yet seen the actual agreement and what it says,” he said. “So we will say for now on paper it’s a workable agreement which we welcome.”
The Zimbabwe Council of Pentecostal Churches also said they had not yet studied the agreement to come up with a position. But some church leaders said they viewed the compensation as problematic if citizens will have to pay off the debt incurred to compensate the white farmers.
Economists such as John Robertson of the Robertson Institute in Zimbabwe say the farm seizures precipitated the fall of Zimbabwe’s economy. Zimbabwe has successively been importing grain from countries such as South Africa and Zambia to offset shortages, with the country currently in dire need of food aid to feed around 7 million citizens that are facing starvation, according to relief agencies.
“All our problems are coming from the land issue because the government took over land but production on the farms has not taken off so they have to print money to fund subsidies on producers and on maize millers,” Robertson said. “This has essentially destroyed the local currency and this is why Zimbabwe’s economy is struggling today.”
The country is also battling a severe economic meltdown, worsened by declining productivity and a domestic currency that is in tailspin since it was restored last year. This has prompted Christian relief agencies to double up their efforts in a bid to help rural and urban citizens that are unable to feed themselves. Their plight has been worsened by current COVID-19 lockdown measures that have disrupted access to markets for the informal sector workers, which is most of the population.
Catholic agencies such as Catholic Relief Services, Caritas and others are running sustainable farming programs in Zimbabwe to help communities be food sufficient.
Multiple farm ownerships, especially by the powerful and connected in Zimbabwe, have also dogged the land reform program, with once productive farms now lying idle. The government and the white farmers are hoping that they can work together to revive the agriculture sector after signing the agreement.
Tawanda Karombo is a Zimbabwe-based journalist covering development, religion, business and finance across Southern Africa. He has more than 10 years experience covering the region for local and international publications, including National Catholic Reporter and America Magazine. Follow him on Twitter @tawakarombo.