The Commercial Farmers Union was prepared to accept a US$20 billion compensation package to end the land dispute in Zimbabwe which had rocked the country for more than a decade but Agriculture Minister Joseph Made felt that US$1.5 billion was more than enough.
According to a cable released by Wikileaks Trevor Gifford, president of the Commercial Farmer’s Union, requested a meeting with United States ambassador to Zimbabwe, James McGhee on 15 April 2009, just two months after the formation of the inclusive government, to discuss a shift in strategy his organization was adopting regarding seized and threatened commercial farms in Zimbabwe.
Gifford said the CFU now wanted compensation of up to US$20 billion because his organisation felt that by making the issue compensation-based, rather than property-rights based, farmers stood a chance of taking the emotion out of the discussion and finding common ground with President Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF leaders.
Gifford also said that two-thirds of the commercial farmers he represented no longer wanted to farm and were only seeking compensation.
The CFU had met Agricultural Minister Joseph Made who acknowledged that government had a responsibility to compensate farmers for land improvements but he thought US$1.5 billion was a more appropriate figure.
Full cable:
Viewing cable 09HARARE333, COMMERCIAL FARMERS IN ZIMBABWE SEEK COMPENSATION
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Reference ID |
Created |
Released |
Classification |
Origin |
VZCZCXRO5124
OO RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHSB #0333/01 1111322
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 211322Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY HARARE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 4406
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
RUEHAR/AMEMBASSY ACCRA 2787
RUEHDS/AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA 2907
RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 1352
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 2172
RUEHDK/AMEMBASSY DAKAR 2537
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA 2955
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 5396
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RHMFISS/EUCOM POLAD VAIHINGEN GE
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 2081
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 HARARE 000333
SIPDIS
AF/S FOR B. WALCH
DRL FOR N. WILETT
ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU
ADDIS ABABA FOR ACSS
STATE PASS TO USAID FOR J. HARMON AND L. DOBBINS
STATE PASS TO NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR MICHELLE GAVIN
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/21/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL EAGR PHUM ASEC ZI
SUBJECT: COMMERCIAL FARMERS IN ZIMBABWE SEEK COMPENSATION
FOR SEIZED FARMS
Classified By: Ambassador James D. McGee for reason 1.4 (d)
——-
SUMMARY
——-
¶1. (C) Trevor Gifford, president of the Commercial Farmer’s
Union (CFU), met with the Ambassador on April 15 to discuss a
shift in strategy his organization is adopting regarding
seized and threatened commercial farms in Zimbabwe. The
CFU’s new position is to seek compensation of up to US$20
billion for commercial farmers who have been victimized by
Zimbabwe’s chaotic land reform program. The idea may appeal
to both MDC and ZANU-PF officials who recognize that the land
issue is a hurdle to renewed investment. All parties
recognize that the money would have to come from
international sources, an extremely unlikely development.
Meanwhile, recent violence and disruptions at farms spurred
an investigation and site visits by Deputy Prime Minister
Mutambara and other MDC and ZANU-PF Cabinet officials. END
SUMMARY.
——————————————–
Farmers Seek Compensation Not Return of Land
——————————————–
¶2. (C) Gifford requested the April 15 meeting to discuss the
CFU’s shift from a strategy focused on protecting individual
property rights, to one focused on gaining compensation for
seized farms. The CFU believes that by making the issue
compensation-based, rather than property-rights based,
farmers stand a chance of taking the emotion out of the
discussion and finding common ground with President Mugabe
and ZANU-PF leaders. Gifford also recognizes that two-thirds
of the commercial farmers he represents no longer want to
farm and are only seeking compensation.
¶3. (C) The CFU has contracted with a local valuation firm,
The Valuation Consortium, to develop a methodology for
valuing Zimbabwean farms. The professional quality model is
in the final stages of completion and combines farm specific
factors — hectarage, buildings, irrigation systems — with
detailed environmental factors such as soil quality and
expected rainfall. The database is populated with data
provided voluntarily by farmers who view it as both a record
of their ownership, as well as a basis for negotiations in
the event compensation is ever paid. The CFU estimates that
about 60 percent of all seized farms are represented in the
database.
¶4. (C) Using this model and regional comparable farm sales
— there hasn’t been a viable farm real estate market in
Zimbabwe since land seizures began in 2000 — Gifford intends
to announce a total debt of US$20 billion due to current and
former farmers. This tally includes current land values
based on the model, as well as rents due during the period
where owners were forced to vacate their farms. It does not
include lost productivity as this is not an internationally
accepted compensation metric. Gifford intends to start high
and negotiate down from this figure.
Qand negotiate down from this figure.
¶5. (C) Unexpectedly, in a recent meeting between the CFU and
Agricultural Minister Joseph Made (ZANU-PF), Made
acknowledged that government had a responsibility to
compensate farmers for land improvements. Made thought
US$1.5 billion was a more appropriate figure. A CFU
representative told us this was the first time a high-ranking
ZANU-PF official had acknowledged that debt, despite its
basis in Zimbabwean law. (NOTE: Constitutional Amendment 17
placed certain categories of land under state ownership. The
HARARE 00000333 002 OF 003
intent was to give the government the authority to redress
historical wrongs by taking land from white commercial
farmers and giving it to landless black Zimbabweans. The
Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement is responsible for
managing this process through the issuance of offer letters
that entitle the recipients to possession. ZANU-PF has taken
the position that pursuant to the Lancaster House Agreement
under which Zimbabwe gained independence, the UK government
is responsible for compensation to dispossessed white
farmers. END NOTE.)
——————————————— —
Making Land Issue Go Away in Everyone’s Interest
——————————————— —
¶6. (C) The CFU is proposing to senior members of government
— including Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and both MDC
and ZANU-PF ministers — that Zimbabwe form a land
compensation and investment fund. This fund would provide
loans to new farmers who want to buy out commercial farmers.
Gifford recognized that the GOZ was broke and this strategy
would need to rely on international financial support.
¶7. (C) Gifford thought the idea might appeal to both ZANU-PF
and MDC elements in the government, because resolving the
land issue would remove a major impediment to renewed donor
and private investment. Compensation for farmers is also
consistent with Zimbabwean law that makes the GOZ responsible
for any improvements such as buildings, irrigation systems,
and equipment. According to Gifford, these improvements
actually account for up to 90 percent of the farm,s value.
———————————————
New Offer Letters Surface; Violence Continues
———————————————
¶8. (C) Gifford reported that several hundred of the 400 to
600 remaining commercial farmers have been faced with fresh
demands to vacate their farms based on newly-issued offer
letters. These letters all appear genuine, but bear dates
that pre-date the new unity government. Gifford said that
they are newly-issued letters that have merely been
post-dated. A common refrain from these new owners is that
they had previously chosen not to execute the letters, but
now wanted to assume ownership.
¶9. (C) Post has received new reports of farm disruptions and
violence since the Easter holidays. Many of these occurred
in the Chegutu district of Mashonaland West. At one Chegutu
farm, a farm worker was severely beaten and suffered a broken
skull, before being thrown into a fire. He survived. At
nearby Stockdale Farm, invaders forced a halt to operations,
threatening a US$2 million citrus crop. They also beat to
death on April 19 an area resident who was caught stealing
oranges from a tree. Stockdale Farm has been threatened by
Senate President Edna Madzongwe since 2007. Madzongwe has
ignored four High Court ruling favoring the owners, and has
Qignored four High Court ruling favoring the owners, and has
already seized eight other farms.
¶10. (C) In response, Tsvangirai directed a team of ministers
to visit farms on April 17 and investigate the reports of
violence. The team was led by Deputy Prime Minister Arthur
Mutambara (MDC-M), and included Home Affairs Ministers Giles
Mutsekwa (MDC-T) and Kembo Mohadi (ZANU-PF), Agriculture
Minister Joseph Made (ZANU-PF), Lands Minister Herbert
Murerwa (ZANU-PF), and Minister of State Gordon Moyo (MDC-T).
Mutambara was highly critical of the invasions after
visiting several farms, and accused the invaders of “reaping
where you did not sow.” He also said, “The next time Mugabe
denies that there are fresh land invasions I can say that is
HARARE 00000333 003 OF 003
not true. I saw it for myself.” At the Mount Carmel farm in
Chegutu that was seized by Mugabe biographer and former
Information Minister Nathan Shamuyarira, Mutambara ordered
the invaders off the land and chastised the police for not
maintaining order. Shamuyarira’s supporters left, only to
return an hour after Mutambara left to chase off the owner,
Ben Freeth, and his employees. This was mirrored at the
other farms Mutambara visited, including the French-owned
Twyford farm in Chegutu that falls within the scope of the
Bilateral Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement
between Zimbabwe and France. After Mutambara left, ZANU-PF
Senator Jamaya Muduvuri was reported to say, “I am a ZANU-PF
senator and the MDC will not tell me what to do on this farm.
It is my farm and I will not allow this French woman to come
back here or reap her crops.”
——-
COMMENT
——-
¶11. (C) Although legal issues exist in the recent spate of
farm invasions — whether offer letters are genuine, the lack
of due process in executing them, and compensation for
expropriated property — the fate of remaining white farms is
ultimately a political rather than a legal issue. This is
because, as noted, the existing Zimbabwean Constitution
(Amendment 17) vests ownership of designated agricultural
land in the State. Realizing the importance of agriculture
to Zimbabwe, the MDC hopes that an accommodation can be
reached with ZANU-PF to allow most of the remaining white
farmers and conservancy owners to maintain possession of
their properties. It hopes that the Mutambara-led visit will
embarrass Mugabe and ZANU-PF into reaching such an
accommodation. More embarrassing would be the MDC-promised
land audit, as called for by the Inter-Party Agreement, which
would highlight the rapacious farm appetites of Madzongwe and
her like.
¶12. (C) Land has become a symbol for ZANU-PF of colonial
exploitation, and the mantra of land long served as a smoke
screen for ZANU-PF as it corruptly dispensed patronage and
attacked the West. In an April 15 courtesy call by the
Ambassador on Minister of Local Government Ignatius Chombo,
Chombo spent the better part of an hour proclaiming the
importance of land to the Zimbabwean people. Although he
told the Ambassador that once the land issue was settled
ZANU-PF and the MDC could go forward in harmony, we suspect
Chombo and other Mugabe cronies will continue their efforts
to stay in power by undermining the MDC.
¶13. (C) Having run out of options, the CFU appears to be
setting down a marker in the hopes of future compensation.
Prospects of this of course are dubious. The CFU may also be
hoping that this will reduce tensions, and lead to
arrangements whereby remaining farmers can remain on their
farms. END COMMENT.
MCGEE
(134 VIEWS)
