Some of the white former commercial farmers who were displaced from their farms at the height of the Fast Track Land Resettlement Programme around the year 2000 are now languishing in poverty, some now living in South Africa. The former farmers want the government to pay them compensation as most of them have now become sicker and older. Ben Gilpin, director of the Commercial Farmers Union, told a South African publication, Sunday Times that
The average age of farmers at the peak of land reform was around 55. Now the vast majority are over 70 and many are unable to work. Thus the need for settlement is very real. Sadly, many have died without [a] settlement and others are facing extreme hardship.
We do want compensation for our losses, but not under the current very poor terms that they are offering. This has been paid over time and is only worth a fraction of what it should be.