The Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mthuli Ncube, revealed that the government has to date paid US$64,4 million to 93 former white commercial farmers.
The payments are for infrastructural development that was done on the farms by the former farmers before they were repossessed for redistribution by the government.
While presenting a Ministerial Statement on the State of Economy in Parliament on Wednesday night, Ncube said:
As outlined in the Transitional Stabilisation Programme, Government is committed to finalising compensation for all former farmers affected by the land reform programme.
Government is also engaging development partners and other bilateral countries with a view to mobilising the requisite resources.
Since 2009 to date, US$64, 4 million was paid to 93 former commercial farmers as compensation for immovable improvements.
In 2018 alone, US$12 million was paid towards the same to 29 farmers. In the 2019 National Budget, we set aside US$53 million for the same purpose.
Ncube added that the process to identify former white farmers who will benefit from compensation is now complete.
He argued that the restitution of the former farmers was a noble idea in keeping with the Constitutional requirements of the country.