A
large
commercial
farm,
west
of
Bulawayo,
lies
fallow
in
a
2008
file
photo.
John
Moore/Getty
Images
Agriculture
Minister
Anxious
Masuka
told
lawmakers
that
the
transfer
involved
67
properties.
Treasury
data
separately
showed
the
payments
would
settle
claims
by
property
owners
from
Denmark,
Germany,
the
Netherlands,
Switzerland
and
the
former
Yugoslavia.
Masuka
said
840
affected
farms
owned
by
black
farmers
were
being
returned
as
well
as
around
400
owned
by
white
farmers.
In
2000,
then-Zimbabwean
President
Robert
Mugabe
encouraged
the
invasion
of
white-owned
farms
by
black
subsistence
farmers
and
youths,
saying
it
would
make
up
for
colonial-era
injustices.
A
number
of
white
farmers
—
alongside
hundreds
of
their
workers
—
were
killed
and
about
4
000
were
forced
off
their
land.
The
seizures
prompted
international
sanctions
and
in
2020
the
government
agreed
to
pay
white
farmers
$3.5
billion
in
compensation
as
it
sought
to
gain
reentry
to
global
capital
markets.
It
subsequently
altered
the
terms
of
the
deal
to
include
dollar
bonds
as
part
of
the
payoff,
but
the
revamped
offer
was
rejected
by
a
number
of
the
farmers.