Harare - Zimbabwe is set to establish a fund that will be used to compensate farmers whose land was taken under the land reform programme.
At the announcement of the 2015 National Budget Statement in parliament on Thursday, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said government is establishing a land compensation fund to expedite the payment of compensation for farm improvements to previous commercial farmers.
Chinamasa said compensation to previous farmers under the land reform programme for improvements on farms has not progressed as planned owing to lack of resources.
He added that this has delayed closure to the various outstanding compensation cases.
“In order to expedite the payment of compensation for farm improvements to previous commercial farmers, government is establishing a land compensation fund,” said Chinamasa.
“The capitalisation of this fund will be on account of land tax proceeds from land beneficiary farmers,” he said, adding that government through the treasury will be approaching development partners to augment the fund's resources.
Chinamasa said Treasury is already consulting on the modalities of establishing and managing the land compensation fund.
This dovetails with his statement earlier this month that government is still seeking resources to implement the compensation of white commercial farmers, as prescribed by the constitution.
READ: Zim 'willing to compensate white farmers'