PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa has sent a message of condolences to the Swanepoel family following the death of the former leader of the Commercial Farmers Union, Mr Nick Swanepoel.

In a statement, President Mnangagwa described Mr Swanepoel as a great figure of post-independence racial conciliation through just settlement of the land question.

“I was acutely distressed and deeply saddened to receive yesterday news of the death in South Africa of Mister Nick Swanepoel, a longtime leader of the Commercial Farmers Union, CFU. A veteran farmer and leader, Zimbabwe remembers and mourns the late Nick Swanepoel for his role as a key and progressive player in the search for an amicable, negotiated settlement to the vexatious and historically-rooted Zimbabwean Land Question.”

Mr Swanepoel was a veteran farmer, who played a key role in pushing for a non-confrontational and non-political approach to the Land Question, when Zimbabwe sought to correct the colonial injustices through the land reform programme at the turn of the millennium.

President Mnangagwa noted how Mr Swanepoel and other progressive white commercial farmers tabled to government land settlement proposals as early as 2001.

The proposals called upon white commercial farmers to not only endorse and cede land which government needed for resettlement, but to also participate in the actual resettlement of landless Zimbabweans.

“From 2000 when the struggle for the recovery of our land entered a decisive phase, Nick and like-minded progressive white farmers kept their heads, and tirelessly pushed for a non-confrontational and non-political approach to the Land Question, even calling for the removal of the then right-wing CFU Executive, led by Tim Henwood, which they correctly saw as an obstacle to a just resolution of the Land Question. True to his conciliatory, mature and realistic approach, Mr Swanepoel and his group tabled to Government land settlement proposals as early as in 2001, which called upon white commercial farmers to not only endorse and cede land which Government needed for resettlement, but also to participate in the actual resettlement of landless Zimbabweans through various inputs to the new
black farmers,” read a statement by the President.

The President said the result of Mr Swanepoel’s efforts was the historic Global Compensation Deed signed by government and the Commercial Farmers Union in July 2020.

It provided for government to pay white farmers a total of US$3.5 billion for improvements on acquired land.

President Mnangagwa said government will decide on the form of support it will give to the Swanepoel family once burial arrangements are known.

ZBC News