Too Little, Too Late: White Farmers Slam ‘High-Risk’ Bond Deal, Demand Real Compensation

A storm is brewing over Zimbabwe’s controversial land reform compensation deal, as a group of displaced former white farmers have boldly rejected the government’s latest payout scheme — branding it a high-risk gamble with little reward.

More than two decades after the chaotic land seizures of the early 2000s, former farm owners say they’re being offered crumbs from a $3.5 billion pie they were promised under the Global Compensation Deed (GCD) signed in 2020.

Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube recently announced that Treasury has disbursed US$308 million in bond instruments and cash to former farmers a claim verified by ex-Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) leader Andrew Pascoe.

Meanwhile, the farmers are not buying it. In fact, they say Pascoe lost his position in 2024 for backing a deal they overwhelmingly opposed.

Acting chairman of the Compensation Steering Committee, Deon Theron, did not mince his words in a statement that laid bare the farmers’ frustrations.

“The overwhelming majority of farmers supported this deal in a survey at the time but, to date, almost five years on, nothing has been paid per this agreement.”

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Instead of following through on the original GCD promise, the government came back in 2023 with a heavily altered plan: Treasury Bills stretched over a decade, mostly backloaded between years five to ten, and only offering a meagre 2% interest far below the regional average 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.”

Theron pointed out that those who accepted the new deal did so out of desperation not agreement.

“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.”

Yet, the government moved ahead with what it is now calling the Farmers Compensation Agreement (FCA), issuing initial payments to 378 farms.

“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.”

Theron also accused the state of misleading the public by rebranding the FCA initially meant as short-term relief as a full settlement package.

“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.”

According to the Land Compensation Committee, only 740 farmers have so far been approved for compensation out of over 4,500 evicted under the land reform programme that began under former President Robert Mugabe in 2000.

“In reality, only a small token payment has been made and thousands of farmers, the significant majority by number remain uncompensated.”