First millions in compensation transfered to former Zimbabwe white farmers

Zimbabwe’s government controls 65% of Kuvimba through a 21.5% direct stake and other shareholdings via state entities, including a sovereign wealth fund By Bloomberg Zimbabwe made its first compensation payment as part of an agreement to settle a dispute with White commercial farmers who had their land seized violently two decades ago. The state-linked Kuvimba Mining House transferred $1 million to the farmers as the government asked for a delay in paying the full $3.5 billion compensation it had agreed to a year ago. While the payment is a fraction of that agreed to, resolving the dispute is key to the country pulling out of the economic stagnation that the seizures, ordered by then-President Robert Mugabe triggered. Exports plunged, relations with multilateral lenders were severed, the US and the European Union imposed sanctions and Zimbabwe experienced a bout of hyperinflation. “Government asked that the payments be spread out,” Andrew Pascoe, president of the Commercial Farmers’ Union of Zimbabwe, said in an interview in the capital, Harare, this week. “This represents the first money we have received.” (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || ).push({}); The farmers were originally to be paid half of the damages agreed to by next month