Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement has ordered all 8 provincial resettlement offices in the country to start issuing 99-year land leases to the remaining white commercial farmers.

The order is expected to benefit an estimated 200 white commercial farmers who are still operating in the country and the leases will replace the 5-year leases as per the previous arrangement, where 99-year leases were only issued to black landowners.

The policy shift is in line with new President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s bid to stabilise the agricultural sector through initiatives that include deracialising the implementation of the land resettlement policy.

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