THE STATE OF HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT |ZIMBABWE I 2017 Property Rights The year 2017 marked 17 years of the government’s fast track land reform programme (FTLRP), which rapidly changed Zimbabwe’s land ownership structure; removing almost all white commercial farmers from the land and replacing them with African farmers. Among the factors that have been most disruptive to the overall Zimbabwean economy are the violent farm invasions and the 2000 chaotic FTLRP, which did untold damage to Zimbabwe’s international reputation and standing. A renewed wave of black on black land expropriation has been on the increase as powerful politicians and those connected to them have been evicting earlier beneficiaries of the land reform programme especially those producing high end value crops and those prime agricultural land and rich wildlife sanctuaries. In 2017, land invasions and arbitrary evictions continued unabated. To our knowledge, no white farmer from year 2000 up to now has been compensated for improvements to the land they had prior to the FTLRP and no agreed valuation mechanism/matrix has been set by the government to determine the value of developments on the acquired farms. Zimbabwe’s evicted white farmers have reportedly demanded a US$9billion payout for assets expropriated during the country’s controversial land redistribution programme.54 2017 also witnessed an intensification of black on black land invasions with black farmers losing prime land to the powerful politicians and to those who are politically connected. Image Credit: COSV News24 ‘Zim’s evicted white farmers ‘demand $9bn pay-out from govt’, 27 January 2018 https://www.news24.com/Africa/Zimbabwe/zims-evicted-white-farmers-demand-9bn-pay-out-from-govt-report-20 54 44