Zim marks independence

Aftermath of cyclone Idai casts shadow over 39th anniversary celebrations

ZIMBABWE will mark 39 years of independence from Britain tomorrow as the government pledges to compensate former white farmers who lost their land to previously landless black people during land reforms.

The Zimbabwean government recently announced that it would soon start paying interim advance payments to former white commercial farmers as compensation for improvements on their former land.

The move will most likely go a long way towards thawing relations between Zimbabwe and Britain and the EU.

The former farmers have since started registering for the compensation after the government availed 53million RTGS dollars (a new transitional currency) in the 2019 Budget for the programme.

The independence anniversary comes at a time when the nation is still grappling with the effects of Cyclone Idai, which ravaged some eastern, southern and central parts of the country last month, resulting in at least 344 deaths.

The government has since launched an international appeal for at least $612 million (R8.5billion) for food, shelter and the reconstruction of critical infrastructure, including water and sanitation. The cyclone has also had a telling effect on the country’s economy. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said last week that in view of the disaster, it intended to expedite the implementation of the forthcoming Staff Monitored Programme (SMP) for Zimbabwe to boost government efforts to turn around the economy.

Zimbabwe and the IMF agreed on steps that would pave way for the SMP, which entail the monitoring of the country’s economic targets and policies by the financial institution, with successful completion of the programme helping in the country’s re-engagement drive.

IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said the institution was ready to support Zimbabwe’s economic reform programme through the SMP.

“And it is particularly appropriate that we do that expeditiously, given the hardship caused by the recent cyclone,” she said in Washington.

Zimbabwean citizens are currently suffering from depleted buying power as the prices of basic commodities continue to rise while incomes remain stagnant.

Prices have risen by between 25% and 75% in recent weeks, while the rate of inflation was at 59.39% at the end of last month.