Farmers dissatisfied with compensation offers

Commercial farmers in Zimbabwe on Wednesday criticised as insufficient the government's purchase offers for their farms, acquired under the controversial land reform programme. Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) president, Colin Cloete, told IRIN that on average, the authorities were willing to pay less than 50 percent of anticipated compensation figures. "The government is not serious about compensating farmers. There has been a case where an independent valuation pegged a farm at Zim $250 million but the government offered the farmer a mere Zim $20 million. We understand that the government does not have the necessary finance to meet all the compensation needs, but we do expect some kind of reasonable compromise," Cloete said. He added that the offers were not being made in writing, but by verbal agreement. Under the terms of Zimbabwe's land law, some 290 white farmers have been offered compensation for improvements to their land, but not for the seized land itself. Of an original 4,500 white farmers, only 600 are estimated to be on their farms as a result of the government's fast-track land redistribution programme. Cloete said the CFU was in dialogue with the government in an attempt to reach an agreement on "fair compensation". IRIN was unable to get comment from the government on Wednesday.