White farmers in Zimbabwe are receiving their first compensation payouts after their land was seized by the country's Government.
Authorities have announced an initial payment of £2.3million to the farmers - whose land was seized under a Robert Mugabe-era land-grab programme more than two decades ago.
It marks the first compensation payment under a 2020 agreement in which Zimbabwe committed to pay £2.6billion for seized farmland.
The payment will cover the first 378 farmers out of 740 former farm owners whose compensation had been approved - but the initial sum represents just one per cent of the total £240m allocated.
Thousands of white farmers were forced from their land, often violently, between 2000 and 2001
REUTERS
The remainder will be paid through US-dollar denominated Treasury bonds, according to Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube.
"One of our commitments as we try to reform the Zimbabwe economy, to clear our arrears, is really to compensate the former farm owners who lost their farms during the land reform programme," he said.
"We have now begun to honour that agreement."
Thousands of white farmers were forced from their land, often violently, between 2000 and 2001.
The seizures were meant to redress colonial-era land-grabs - but then contributed to the country's economic decline and ruined relations with the West.
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The farmers' land was seized under a Robert Mugabe-era land-grab programme
REUTERS
In 1980, Zimbabwe gained independence after years of existence of Southern Rhodesia, Rhodesia and the Republic of Rhodesia.
By that year, most of the country's most fertile land was owned by some 4,000 white farmers.
Then, Mugabe supported land invasions by Government forces and vigilante groups in 2000.
Harry Orphanides, one of the farmers' representatives, told the BBC that more farmers have now indicated an interest in signing up for the compensation.
Mugabe supported land invasions by Government forces and vigilante groups in 2000
REUTERS
However, the majority of former farm owners have not signed up to the deal, and are still holding onto their title deeds.
The Government has only agreed to compensate for "improvements" made on the land and refused to pay for the land itself, arguing it was unfairly seized by colonialists in the first place.
It follows a January move in which Zimbabwe began paying compensation for foreign investors whose farms were protected under bilateral investment agreements.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who replaced Mugabe in a 2017 coup, has tried to bring Western governments to the table in a bid to restore ties.
Mnangagwa has previously said that land reform cannot be reversed - but committed to paying compensation as a key way of mending ties with the West.
