Rabia Mayet | rabiamayet@radioislam.co.za

11 May 2026

2-minute read

Zimbabwe is set to return 67 farms seized from foreigners from 4 European countries covered by bilateral investment banks. The country’s agricultural minister stated that they are seeking to mend ties with European countries while battling debt relief.

Tino Mambeu, a member of the Zimbabwe Exile’s Forum, says that the story of land reform came about round about 1979 to 1980, when Zimbabwe sought to end the war with British settlers. The British government was to pay compensation to farmers holding the land and return it to “natural Zimbabweans”. Two decades later, “Mugabe finds himself in a spot of bother” with economic and political challenges in the country. A referendum to give Mugabe more powers was rejected by the Zimbabwean people, prompting the president to give permission to the Zimbabwean people to forcibly take land from white commercial farmers. Land takeovers then resulted in sanctions, hyper-inflation, and the country being unable to feed its people, as well as the current chaos they are still facing.

The initial reform process was so tumultuous that it targeted not only white settler farmers, but all those possessing farms, and in the process, 840 black Zimbabweans lost their land.

Trying to right its relationships with the West, the government is now wanting to return some farms to settlers coming from certain countries. Concessions could be made by government to “cover up and get favour from the Western institutions.”

The people in Zimbabwe are experiencing “mixed reactions,” Tino mentions, uncertain as to what happens once the farms are returned. With no clear strategy outlined by government, those inhabiting the farms want to know if they will be resettled elsewhere or forced back to their rural lands. “The Zimbabwean government has always been indicating left and turning right,” he emphasizes, and this has caused panic among the people in their understanding of what happens next.

Zimbabwe itself is a complex country where almost everything done by the people “is interpreted in a political manner,” and Tino concludes that this has led to the current confusion with the people not really understanding “the direction this thing is taking.”

Listen to the full interview with Ml Sulaimaan Ravat and Tino Mambeu here.