PH
Zimbabwe is to issue white commercial farmers with 99-year land leases with immediate effect as part of a directive by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, state-owned The Herald reports.
Previously, the farmers were only given a five year lease.
Mr Mnangagwa announced the policy in November as part of his push to restore confidence in the country’s agriculture sector.
The lands ministry said in a statement that the new policy was to be implemented “with immediate effect”.
A representantive of the white commercial farmers’ union, Ben Giplin, welcomed the announcement but told the Herald that there had not been any official communication yet.
He said that there were only 200 commercial farmers, adding that:
“Whilst we are very encouraged, we want to see more clarity on what will happen to those farmers that are still on the farms but had not yet received offer letters because at the moment, there is only a small number that have them.
We would also want to know what will happen to those farmers who are still interested to go back to farming.”
Most white farmers were kicked off their farms during former President Robert Mugabe controversial land reform policy in the early 2000s which resulted in violent expulsion of some 4,000 white farmers.
Since taking office two months ago, Mr Mnangagwa has sought a conciliatory tone encouraging former white commercial farmers to return.
His agriculture minister has banned the illegal occupation of farms.
