Zimbabwe’s land reform enters a new chapter

Harare, Zimbabwe – More than two decades after Zimbabwe seized thousands of mainly white-owned commercial farms, some of those properties are set to change hands again.

But President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government insisted the move is not a reversal of the land redistribution programme that reshaped Zimbabwe’s countryside after 2000.

Instead, officials said they are resolving three separate categories of land claims involving foreign investors, Black Zimbabwean owners and white farmers who remained on acquired land.

Sixty-seven farms protected by bilateral investment promotion and protection agreements (BIPPAs) are being returned to investors from Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Another 840 farms that officials said were included in the acquisition process in error during land reform are to be restored to their Black Zimbabwean owners.

And 409 white farmers who have remained on farms alongside land reform beneficiaries will be allowed to buy the farms or portions they occupy through a set-off mechanism linked to compensation for eligible improvements.

“The BIPPA process is about resolving outstanding legal obligations relating to investments protected under bilateral agreements. It should not be mistaken for a return to the pre-land reform era,” Agriculture Minister Anxious Masuka told Parliament.

The distinction matters because land remains one of Zimbabwe’s most politically charged issues, closely tied to the colonial era and the liberation struggle.

At independence in 1980, white commercial farmers controlled a disproportionate share of Zimbabwe’s most productive farmland, reflecting colonial policies that restricted Black Zimbabweans’ access to prime agricultural land.