HARARE Zimbabwe is pursuing an amicable solution to the disputes involving white-owned farms expropriated under the controversial land reform programme in violation of investment protection agreements signed with other countries, according to the draft of a new economic blueprint to be launched by government next year.A quick resolution of the sanctity of property rights in the agricultural sector would be one of the pillars of the proposed Medium Term Plan (MTP) being finalised by government.
Under the MTP, the power-sharing government formed by President Robert Mugabe and former opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai last February plans to engage countries with which Zimbabwe has signed Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements (BIPPAs) but whose nationals were affected by Harares controversial land reform programme.
According to the draft MTP document, the proposed outreach programme would see the Harare authorities aiming to resolve amicably the outstanding issues on the already acquired farms which were protected under the BIPPAs.
Land Resettlement Minister Herbert Murerwa could not be reached for comment on the matter.
But Economic Planning and Investment Promotion Minister Elton Mangoma confirmed that the new Harare regime wanted to see finalisation of the often violent land reform programme.
What we are saying is that there must be a resolution of the land question in general, not just the issue of BIPPAs, Mangoma told The Zimbabwean on Tuesday.
The advent of the land reform programme in 2000 saw Mugabes previous government acquiring white-owned farms including agricultural investments covered by BIPPAs, resulting in disputes with foreign investors.
The administration, which has over the past nine years seized nearly all land previously owned by the countrys about 4 000 white farmers and gave it over to blacks, has in the past maintained it would not pay for the land because white colonial authorities stole it from blacks in the first place.
The government has to date paid compensation to a handful of former white landowners and only for improvements on farms such as buildings, roads and dams.
But several foreign nationals whose farms in Zimbabwe were seized by the government have dragged the Harare administration before international and regional courts demanding compensation for the loss of their properties.
A group of Dutch nationals in April won its case against the Harare regime after appealing to the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in Paris for compensation for loss their properties.
The Dutch farmers argued that their properties were protected by a bilateral investment treaty under which Harare promised to pay full compensation to Dutch nationals in disputes arising out of any investments in Zimbabwe.
Several countries among them Austria, France, Germany, Mauritius, Holland, South Africa, Sweden and Malaysia signed investment protection agreements with Zimbabwe.
The chaotic and often violent land reform programme that Mugabe says was necessary to ensure blacks also owned some of the best land previously reserved for whites by former colonial governments is blamed for destabilizing the mainstay agriculture sector and knocking down food production by about 60 percent.
Zimbabwe has largely survived largely on food handouts from international relief agencies since the land reforms began nine years ago.
Post published in: Economy