By Lloyd Takawira
Division has rocked former white commercial farmers who in 2000 approached the SADC Tribunal following a violent eviction from their farms during the Land Reform Programme.
Last week government announced that it had signed a whopping US$3.5billion compensation agreement with the former white commercial farmers.
The agreement has however generated a lot of controversy with some former commercial farmers led by Hunter distancing themselves from the US$3.5billion global compensation agreement arguing it was signed under “duress”.
State media today reported that 94 percent of the former white commercial farmers welcomed government’s decision to compensate them for developments on the farms however indications on the ground are different.
According to state media the majority of former commercial farmers’ represented by Harry Orphanides are in support of the government’s offer.
Orhanides is qouted saying “The $US3,5 billion was an offer the Government put on the table. The global position agreed to between ourselves and Government value agents was $US5,2 billion.
“At first we did not agree on the figure as they had excluded biological assets. We later went into the negotiation period of the compensation and at the end of the day the Government put on the table a figure of US$3,5 billion and we took it to our members. Some 3 000 farmers voted in the referendum and about 94 percent accepted. We have a majority of farmers accepting that proposal.”
However a statement obtained by BustopTV ostensibly issued by Glyn Hunter of Mike Campbell Foundation, disputed the agreement arguing the deal is botched.
In a statement, Hunter said “Mnangagwa’s government placed the farming organisations under considerable pressure to sign the agreement — and within a very short timeframe — stating it was their last chance to receive a compensation offer from the government.”
Adding his voice to the contentious deal Ben Freeth, who represented the farmers at the SADC Tribunal and the SADC Tribunal Rights Watch spokesperson, in a statement said a significant number of the former farmers, who were financially hamstrung, elderly and in poor health, were pressured to sign.
Ben further said , “A significant number of dispossessed farmers, many of them in dire straits financially, as well as being elderly and in poor health, signed up, despite only seeing a draft agreement as the final document was withheld.
“As Sadc Tribunal Rights Watch (SADC-TRW), we wish to distance ourselves from the global compensation agreement that the CFU, SACFA-Z and the Valuation Consortium were under extreme pressure to sign — and within a minimal timeframe.”
Added Freeth: “Although the reasons for the pressure were not clear, numerous legal experts and dispossessed farmers, many of them living in ire straits in Zimbabwe or scattered around the world, urged caution and highlighted legal shortcomings in the proposed draft agreement.”
Analysts and ordinary Zimbabweans have also weighed in arguing that government broke as it is cannot afford to settle the US$3,5 billion deal.
