South Africa, future of the West 🇿🇦

🇿🇼 Zimbabwe to compensate white farmers who lost land in seizures 20 years ago

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe says it will compensate local and foreign white farmers who lost land and property more than 20 years ago in farm seizures meant to redress some of the wrongs of colonialism.

About 4,000 white farmers lost their homes and swathes of land when the Black-majority country’s then-president, Robert Mugabe, launched the often-chaotic redistribution program in 2000, which turned violent at times. Mugabe, who died in 2019, said it was aimed at addressing colonial-era land inequities after the southern African nation gained independence from white minority rule in 1980.

Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube announced Wednesday at a meeting with diplomats that his government approved 441 applications for compensation worth $351.6 million from local white farmers and 94 applications from foreigners worth $196.6 million, but only 1%, or $3.5 million, will be paid in cash to local farmers who lost land. The balance, Ncube said, will be paid through the issuance of treasury bonds.

Foreigners will receive an initial $20 million to be shared equally among the 94 claimants from Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland and several countries in eastern Europe, he said.

White farmers who owned the majority of prime farmland were removed from their farms, often forcibly by violent mobs led by veterans of the country’s 1970s independence war. Some farmers and their workers died or were seriously injured in the violence that included beatings and rape, according to Human Rights Watch.

The seizures badly impacted commercial farming, forcing a country that was a key regional food producer and exporter to rely on assistance from donors. Zimbabwe’s agriculture sector has rebounded in recent years, but recent droughts are now the main challenge.

https://apnews.com/article/zimbabwe-white-farmers-land-colonialism-mugabe-8ef1747c1f02d92487b0c47bb1be1f4d

🛢 South Africa’s rising fuel imports cause supply shortage risk

Africa’s most industrialised nation relied on imports for 61% of its petroleum product supply in 2023 compared with 22% four years ago due to the shutting of multiple refineries, Transnet said in a presentation last week.

Growing dependence on imports leaves South Africa’s fuel pipeline system susceptible to interruptions that “may result in temporary fuel shortages,” according to Transnet. The company plans investment in the port of Durban to add tanks, a fuel import terminal and a jet fuel pipeline.

South Africa’s refining capacity has shrunk due to a combination of industrial accidents and the approach of new low-sulfur fuel standards that require greater investment in aging plants. The 2021 shutdown of the Engen oil refinery in South Africa, and a lack of feedstock for State-owned PetroSA’s gas-to-liquids plant have also curtailed the country’s fuel output.

https://www.polity.org.za/article/south-africas-rising-fuel-imports-cause-supply-shortage-risk-2024-10-14