Mercury Public Affairs LLC, a US lobbying firm with ties to Trump, has agreed to make the farmers’ case to American politicians and won’t charge them, according to a previously unreported Foreign Agents Registration Act disclosure that was filed last month. Bryan Lanza, a partner at Mercury who is involved in the project according to a letter included in the filing, previously served as a senior campaign adviser to Trump and communications director on the president’s first transition team. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is a former Mercury co-chair.
Zimbabwe was colonised by a raiding party sent north from South Africa by British mining magnate and politician Cecil John Rhodes in 1890 and the country was named Rhodesia after him. It was technically ruled by the UK until 1980, but in 1966 its White-minority government unilaterally declared independence and an armed struggle against guerrilla movements ensued. It held its first multiracial elections in 1980 after a settlement was negotiated and the country was renamed Zimbabwe, bringing an end to the legislated subjugation of Black citizens.
In 2000, fresh from losing a referendum that would have increased his powers, then-Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe encouraged the invasions of White-owned farms by Black subsistence farmers and youths, saying it was time to make up for colonial-era injustices. A number of White farmers were killed — alongside hundreds of their workers — and about 4,000 were forced off their land. That led to sanctions from western nations including the US and effectively locked Zimbabwe out of international capital markets as its economy collapsed.
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At the time of the seizures, Zimbabwe was a leading exporter of some of the world’s best quality tobacco, the biggest producer of paprika in the southern hemisphere, and supplied roses and other flowers to auctions in the Netherlands. The government led by current President Emmerson Mnangagwa agreed in 2020 to pay the farmers $3.5 billion in compensation in a bid to reintegrate itself into the global economy, but has failed to make good on that pledge. The farmer’s plight has already garnered Republican support.
Brian Mast, a Florida congressman and chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, in September introduced legislation seeking to block Zimbabwe from securing new funding from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank until it paid the compensation. The bill has been passed by the committee to the House, but is yet to advance further. OB Projects, headed by South African Oded Besserglik, was contracted by Zimbabwe’s Property and Farm Compensation Association, or Profca.
In his letter to Mercury, Dror Besserglik said OB Projects was also working on behalf of the Commercial Farmers Union, the Southern African Commercial Farmers Alliance and the Valuation Consortium Ltd. The CFU, Zimbabwe’s oldest and biggest group representing commercial farmers, was unaware of the initiative, according to Liam Philp, its president. He said he contacted Profca representatives after Bloomberg showed him the document uploaded by Mercury and was told the CFU had been included by “mistake.” He is seeking more information.
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