Zimbabwe looks to reverse Mugabe-era land reform policies amidst economic instability

Source: CGTN America via YouTube

• Since independence, the land ownership reform and redistribution of farmland from the white settler minority to the indigenous black majority has been central to Zimbabwean politics, with most viable land having been legally restricted to white owners and large—largely white-owned—corporations in the colonial era.
• The government began allowing for the seizure of white-owned farms without compensation after a period of voluntary land sales, and some militant groups and security forces occupied farms and drove out their owners.
• Following the effective coup that brought about the end of President Robert Mugabe’s nearly three decades of rule, the new government, led by former Vice President Emmerson Mnangawa, has begun returning expropriated land to white farmers in an attempt to stabilize the fragile economy.

Read

“Ululations, tears as white Zimbabwean farmer returns to seized land” (Reuters | December 2017)

“White Zimbabwean farmer get back land seized under Robert Mugabe rule” (Sky News | December 2017)

Additional

“Why Zimbabwe has failed to sate the yearning for land and to fix rural hunger” (The Conversation | December 2016)

“Robert Mugabe admits Zimbabwe’s land reform flaws” (BBC News | February 2015)