Zimbabwe launches new land policy to empower Black farmers with direct farm ownership

Associated Press

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has launched a new policy that will allow beneficiaries of land taken from white people under controversial land reforms to sell it and to be able to borrow from banks using it as collateral. The new guidelines launched Friday mark a major shift in Zimbabwe’s land policy. Resettled farmers previously couldn’t transfer ownership of land. But ownership of the land can only be transferred between “Indigenous Zimbabweans.” That’s a reference to Black Zimbabweans. Tens of thousands of Black people took over white-owned farms after then President Robert Mugabe initiated the land reforms in 2000. But the Black farmers weren’t allowed to sell or transfer ownership of the land.