- Land under-utilised by absentee owners to be repossessed
- 300 white commercial farmers compensated so far
THE government initiative of giving back land to some of the dispossessed white commercial farmers has been welcomed.
Ben Purcel Gilpin, Commercial Farmers’ Union director, said the use of land as compensation would offer relief to the affected farmers.
“The government is currently seeking ways to deal with the compensation issue for all classes of affected farmers,” he said.
“We hope progress will be made and a conducive investment environment is achieved, where skilled farmers can produce effectively with secure and justifiable rights for the good of the whole nation,” Gilpin added.
Recently, government announced plans to give and to some of the dispossessed former white commercial farmers after it had failed to fully compensate them.
Justice Tendai Uchena’s Land Commission recently disclosed in its report that there were vast tracts of arable land that were under-utilised and held by absentee owners.
The report also said most of the fallow land was being kept for speculative purposes.
The Government Gazette recently announced that the former land owners had two options; either to get back their farms or receive monetary compensation.
Gilpin said presently, 300 white commercial farmers had been compensated for the land taken away from them through compulsory land acquisition programmes, while 3 500 are yet to be compensated.
