Zimbabwe To Compensate White Farmers With Money And Lands And Here’s The Crazy Part

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]I don't understand why for close to seven decades after independence, we still haven't figured out how to run our own state farms and the businesses around them that will not require the involvement of a white man. I cannot understand this. What is this thing with always needing a white investor to make food available for us? Food. How do you put your full security in the hands of a foreigner whose intentions you cannot trust? You want to tell me we cannot find domestic investors in Zimbabwe interested in the farming industry to partner the government of Zimbabwe? You want me to believe this? Really?

[00:00:53]Let's be honest with this story.

[00:00:56]The West does many things better than us, especially when it comes to negotiations. And one of those things is how they are able to get our leaders to sign agreements that points the gun to our feet whenever we decide to make changes to those negotiations. Ladies and gentlemen, and I'm serious about this because it keeps happening. Growing up, President Robert Mugabi was my favorite president in Africa. I thought he stood for the African pride. I love the way he spoke at UN meetings and I therefore considered him as the threshold, the model to learn from for African leadership because of his firmness in decision-m especially taking farmlands from whites, white settlers and redistributing them to the black people of Zimbabwe. I thought that was the best thing he did for his people.

[00:01:47]But after doing all my research around the incident, after understanding the other stories behind that incident, I began to wonder why and how the whole thing even happened in the first place.

[00:01:59]Ladies and gentlemen, Mugabi, don't get me wrong, is still a great leader to me.

[00:02:05]But let's analyze this together and be honest with it. You had many white settlers in Zimbabwe who were second, third, and fourth generation farmers born in Zimbabwe. That's one group. And then you had other group of white farmers who came in as investors into the farming industry in Zimbabwe. One group was there. They were born there whose parents mostly took lands for themselves with no type of compensation to the black Zimbabweans and farmed on it for years. And then you have the other whites who came in with their money because they wanted to set up farms for the international market in Zimbabwe. When you Mugabi decided to kick out white farmers in Zimbabwe for the inequalities of land ownership in Zimbabwe, you kicked out both white groups. This is where he lost me.

[00:02:59]President Mugabi, you launched a land reform program in the year 2000. The idea was to solve a particular problem in Zimbabwe. A problem that is also shared in South Africa today. The white settlers were controlling everything.

[00:03:14]They control the vast majority of the fertile lands in the country making it difficult for the black Zimbabweans subsistent farmers to farm. The whites controlled it all. Like for instance in places like Mazoe River, the Mazo River Valley, Manyama River area and and in Inqu River which currently has a dam on it.

[00:03:38]These places were completely in the hands of the whites. So Mugabi decides to reform land ownership in Zimbabwe.

[00:03:45]And instead of taking the lands from the white settlers who took many of those lands without compensation, he decided to also take it from those who also came in with their money to establish farms as investment in Zimbabwe. This is where the problem began. These were farmers who came from Denmark, Germany, Switzerland and from the Netherlands.

[00:04:10]Those are not settlers. Those are business people. These ones came through Zimbabwe's bilateral investment promotion and protection agreements.

[00:04:21]Some came around 1996, some came there around 1999, and others were just about to take off with their project when Mugabi implemented the land reforms.

[00:04:32]At the time this happened, ladies and gentlemen, I thought that was a smart move. I thought it was about time African leaders took care of Africa's resources at the time, the way Mugabi went about it. But Mugabi, ladies and gentlemen, those who were investors, this is where the problems of sanctions began. Today, the new president of Zimbabwe, President Emerson, wants to repair relationships with the West. He wants to secure debt reliefs and access foreign investment. And every corner he turns, the white banks and their IMFs and world banks, they stifle his plans with the white farmers land issue. If you want this, go and settle that first.

[00:05:19]This is sort of the thing they are playing with the current Zimbabwean president. Now, President Emerson is torn between two choices. whether he goes the route of returning the investment of the white farmers who came to Zimbabwe through a bilateral investment program or completely snop the west and look elsewhere. This is the dilemma ladies and gentlemen and he agreed to the former. The president wants to rebuild a new relationship with the western world. Therefore, President Emerson in Nangagua has agreed to actually return some of the farms that were seized during the land reform period under Robert Mugabi. He has agreed to return some of them to the white and also make monetary compensations to some of the farmers. In total, ladies and gentlemen, there are 67 white farmers who have won their cases in the International Arbitration Court and are to be either compensated or have their farms returned to them or both. Ladies and gentlemen, sometimes I get worried over how African leaders find it convenient to give concessions to white investors but aren't ready to do same for their local investors.

[00:06:40]This whole issue with lands and farms and agri businesses in Zimbabwe and in almost everywhere in in subsahara Africa particularly is something we could have resolved ourselves easily. I'll be honest with you. I don't understand why for close to seven decades after independence, we still haven't figured out how to run our own state farms and the businesses around them that will not require the involvement of a white man.

[00:07:10]I cannot understand this. The lands are ours. The people are youthful. The rivers are available. The farming technologies are for sale. The equipment, everything is for sale. The sun is abundant in Africa. And we have a huge population to feed. What is this thing with always needing a white investor to make food available for us?

[00:07:30]Food. How do you put your food security in the hands of a foreigner whose intentions you cannot trust? Ladies and gentlemen, look at all the genetically modified seeds and crops being produced out there. Look at all the strange types of fertilizers and even chemicals we are supplied with to spray on our farms as pesticides. When will these leaders realize that we could easily be experimented on with these things?

[00:08:01]Ladies and gentlemen, when will they realize that certain things in our countries are not for sale and not open to foreigners?

[00:08:11]You want to tell me we cannot find domestic investors in Zimbabwe interested in the farming industry to partner the government of Zimbabwe? You want me to believe this? Really? Are you saying our banks cannot fund such projects with collaborations with the state? Really, ladies and gentlemen, our politicians take loans from banks for your information all the time when it comes to their campaigning. They use loans to campaign. They borrow money to buy fleets of SUVs, SUVs, 4x4 all the time, but cannot find the same kind of investment for something so essential. There are many things we Africans currently aren't able to do because we haven't built the infrastructure for them and the resource persons, but farming is not one of them.

[00:09:00]Not one of them. We may not be making rockets to space or airplanes for flights, but we can certainly grow our foods and keep our animals. This isn't rocket science, ladies and gentlemen.

[00:09:12]Any serious African country or leader will have to confront three major industries in this country. You have to confront the idea of state farms, state construction company, and state mining company. These three sectors pretty much sum up the foundation on which the entire society of the world is built. If you're not confronting this, farming, construction, mining, if your country's government isn't interested in participating in these three industries, if your country's government insists the best way to go about this is to leave it in the hands of of the private sector.

[00:09:50]If this is what they keep telling you, you should just know that that that particular government who's there right now is not there for you. is is only there for the corporations, not for the people. We keep wobbling on our knees for help because we don't understand the importance of controlling these three industries in our countries. And until we do, we will continue to go on wild goose chases. We'll be chasing after things that doesn't exist. You think the white man will develop your country for you. Zimbabwe's government has already announced it. They will go ahead and make the compensation and payments to the white farmers. I don't know about you folks, but that's a wasted opportunity for a country that's capable of feeding all of Africa by itself.

[00:10:37]My name is Cyrus. I'll end it here and thanks for watching till the end. Be sure to subscribe and click on the bell for more of such content. I'll see you in the next one. It is bye-bye for now.