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Zimbabwe’s president Emmerson Mnangagwa, during a panel session with host Tucker Carlson at the World Governments Summit in Dubai, revealed that reclamation of land from colonists brought on years of international sanctions from the British.
In the course of the session, Tucker Carlson inquired about the lessons the Zimbabwean president had learnt from decades in government, particularly concerning the economic crisis former president Robert Mugabe faced after the expulsion of white farmers.
“I’m not so sure what you have in mind, but let me say, our economy has faced challenges, I’m sure you are aware, Zimbabwe has been under sanctions for decades as a result of us claiming our lands from the British and making ourselves independent,” the Zimbabwean president responded.
“We seized the land and gave it to our people, so sanctions were imposed on us. But in spite of all those constraints we have developed, and we are happy that we feel very independent,” he added.
As seen on Sputnik, Tucker further inquired about lessons taken from land seizure from Zimbabwean citizens who happen to be white.
“I wonder if there is a lesson about targeting people on the basis of their skin?” he asked. “People had their lands seized in Zimbabwe, who were born in Zimbabwe, and they were targeted on the basis of their race,” he further clarified.
“Land did not belong to the rest; it belonged to Zimbabweans. So when the colonialists took land from us, the time came when we asserted ourselves to take the land back,” President Mnangagwa noted.
“Those who wanted to have land on the same basis as the African people of Zimbabwe remained. But those who felt they were superior left,” he elaborated further.
Last month, a United States lobbying group with close ties to Donald Trump decided to take on the job of convincing the US government to support Zimbabwe’s debt clearance process and the creation of new financial arrangements that could “generate the funds necessary to satisfy” the duties of the government to reimburse farmers, according to the letter.
To put it simply, disgruntled white farmers whose lands had been seized by Zimbabwe’s former government are looking to fast-track their compensation.
Recent history between Zimbabwe and white farmers
In the 2000s, when Robert Mugabe was still president of Zimbabwe, approximately 1,300 Zimbabwean farmers in the Southern African nation had their lands seized.
At the time, the former president began what was the Fast-Track Land Reform Program (FTLRP), intending to seize commercial farms owned by white farmers.
This action was often carried out by state-backed militias using force or intimidation, impacting around 4,000 commercial farms and causing a significant drop in Zimbabwe’s commercial agricultural output.
After Mugabe was removed from office in 2017, the subsequent Mnangagwa administration faced pressure to resolve these long-standing land disputes.
In 2020, the Zimbabwean government agreed to compensate 4,000 white farmers, committing $3.5 billion over ten years.
The Zimbabwean government, under the leadership of Emmerson Mnangagwa, committed to compensating the 4,000 White farmers whose land was seized by state-backed militants pursuant to a 2020 accord; nevertheless, it has consistently failed to meet the stipulated payment deadlines.
