Zimbabwe has announced it will return 67 farms that were seized from foreign nationals during the violent land reform programme initiated under former president Robert Mugabe, as the country intensifies its drive to mend relations with Western governments and unlock long-stalled debt relief.
Agriculture Minister Anxious Masuka told lawmakers that the farms would be returned to nationals from Denmark, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands — countries that have bilateral investment protection agreements with Zimbabwe that oblige the state to restore the properties.
Treasury data shows that the payments associated with the restitution will settle claims worth approximately $146 million, according to Bloomberg
Zimbabwe began seizing white-owned farms under Mugabe from 2000, with the government at the time framing the programme as a means to resettle landless Black Zimbabweans and redress land ownership imbalances dating from the colonial era. The seizures devastated commercial agriculture and contributed to a catastrophic currency collapse in 2008 that left Zimbabwe struggling to feed itself.
The consequences for Zimbabwe’s standing in the global financial system have been lasting. The country’s foreign debt stood at $13.6 billion in September 2025, with $7.7 billion of that in arrears. International financial institutions and bilateral lenders have consistently demanded governance reforms, including resolution of land-related disputes, as a condition for meaningful debt relief. Zimbabwe has entered an IMF Staff-Monitored Programme aimed at building a track record of economic reform, though the arrangement does not include financial assistance.
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In 2020, the government agreed to pay displaced white farmers $3.5 billion in compensation as part of its effort to re-enter global capital markets. It subsequently amended the terms of the deal to include dollar bonds, a revamped offer that was rejected by a number of the affected farmers.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who replaced Mugabe following a military-assisted transition in 2017, has made normalising relations with Western governments a central plank of his economic strategy. The return of the 67 properties covered by investment treaties signals renewed momentum, though the path to full debt restructuring and sanctions removal remains long. More than 4,000 white-owned farms were seized in total, and the majority of those claims remain unresolved.