Taxpayers' Funds Won't Be Used To Compensate White Commercial Farmers - ED

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said his administration will not take taxpayers’ money to compensate commercial white farmers who lost their properties during the infamous land reform program in the early 2000s.

The President was addressing ZANU PF Midlands Provincial Coordinating Committee (PCC) members in Gweru yesterday when he said:

Our colonisers took our land and we waged a war that culminated into independence and we took it back, and that will never change. We, however, have a few individuals who fail to understand or comprehend our Constitution, Section 295 of the Constitution. We have a Lancaster House Constitution which we used until 2013, but we decided as a people that we need a home-grown Constitution and that Constitution remains the position.

The position is that as Zimbabweans we shall not pay compensation for land and that remains . . . we are saying no taxpayer’s money will be used to pay that compensation. We have set up a committee including white former farmers to go to Europe where they will raise the money to pay under the Agreement. Then we hear some individuals who are unable to comprehend just one provision saying ‘we want to reverse the land reform programme’, NO! The purpose of the revolution was our land and we shall not deviate from that, we shall not depart from our land.

When the government signed The Global Compensation Deed Agreement with the representatives of white former farmers a few weeks ago, it was suggested it would use taxpayers’ money to compensate ousted commercial farmers.

Under the agreement, the government will raise funds to pay former commercial farmers US$3,5 billion as compensation for improvements made on farms that were acquired by the State.

Over 1.5 billion will be paid within 12 months of signing the agreement according to the terms of the deed.

• Farmers Urged To Register Farms With Mines Ministry To Avoid Conflicts
• WATCH: “What Did White Farmers Expect Black Politicians To Do” – TikToker On Land Reform
• Update: Judgment On Zimbabwean Farmers v South Africa
• White Farmers Quietly Returning To Their Farms – Biti
• FULL TEXT: We Will Fight This Injustice – EFF Zimbabwe On The Government’s Decision To Compensate Commercial Farmers 2020
• FULL TEXT: Ministry Of Finance & Ministry Of Agriculture Joint Statement On Compensation Of Commercial Farmers 2020

More: Pindula News; The Sunday Mail