Germany demands compensation for land grabbed by Zimbabwe from its citizens

Speaking after a meeting the Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda, German ambassador to Zimbabwe, Thorsten Hutter, said that compensation for land lost during the land reform programme must be part of the re-engagement dialogue between Zimbabwe and the European Union (EU).

Said Hutter:

I did not discuss this issue (compensation) with the Speaker of Parliament today but what I can say is that this issue is important. We have a number of Germany nationals who invested here in Zimbabwe after independence who are not here anymore. We have a particular case where the issue of compensation was the verdict at the international court that compensation has to be made available and I believe that this is part of the process that the government has to.

Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa has highlighted that government is committed to compensating former commercial farmers affected by the land reforms, but that its efforts were being hampered the lack of funds. However, government has made clear that it would only pay for what it describes as “improvements” on the land and not for the land itself.

More: NewZimbabwe.com