Who would have thought that 45 years after independence from British rule, they would one day watch a foreigner like businessman, Elon Musk’s father, Errol revealing that he has raised his family from an unregulated Zimbabwe mine’s minerals till his son has became earth’s richest man?

Who would have imagined the govt of Zimbabwe ignoring full colour footage of Errol Musk boasting that it had to be an unregistered mine because the blacks would take everything?

Who would have thought that the irony is way worse than this – the state is moving to dispossess its own black citizens of their last assets, their shelter, at another unregistered property?

Violent evictions have hit over 300 black ZANU PF members at Clouverdale Farm outside the capital city, in Ruwa, the same property that the government recently announced that they can stay for another 5 years. All this is happening at a time when President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced today a contrary reality that people whose properties were not regulated before will be regulated in commemoration of independence from Great Britain on the 18th of April.

Happening at a time when a teenager was shot by police last week, former Cabinet Minister Patronella Kagonye and a brother of hers are demanding that hundreds of black families leave the farm she was recently announced as one of three developers by Local Govt Minister Daniel Garwe.

Coincidentally however, the same minister has recently ordered that the families must stay.

Horrific images of a teenager shot on the leg by police officers who’ve made things worse by denying the lad a police-report for hospital treatments, paint bloody scenes the families are being subjected to for nearly 2 weeks to date.

Speaking to ZimEye, Kagonye confirmed her company is the one behind the move to remove residents she described as invaders. She said her company purchased the Clouverdale land for half a million Zimbabwean dollars (treated by the government in 2013 at the rate of one is to one in the US dollar currency).

She produced no title deeds to support her claim, and further revelations have emerged that she is only a developer, one of three others who has no power to evict anyone. She however has over the last 2 weeks managed to command hoardes of police officers, despite a court order instructing her to stop.

She neither responded concerning a statement by a lawyer for the villagers who’s announced saying, “The land remains urban state land. State land is owned by lands ministry. She has no locus standi whatsover. The evictions were done by the backdoor. The affected residents say they were never served with the processes of such. The ministry reserves the right to evict. Petronella remains a developer.”

She told ZimEye, the Local Government Minister Daniel Garwe is behind the current efforts to remove the said “invaders.”

“I will tell you the whole story and I want you to be objective . Tell them to send you the proper photos. I’m also going to send you mine. I need you to write what is correct. It is not the first time for this matter to go onto social media.

We bought that land from the Ministry of local government in 2013. So we have been developing that land we have all the paper trail which I will send you. It is fully surveyed. All approved plans; approved water sewage, designs, properly surveyed. And then when I was sent to jail, that was one of the reasons why they sent me to jail, that was one of the reasons why they sent me to jail without a crime I committed ; they wanted to take that land again from me; but we had already developed it we had already put tarred Roads; we had put water pipes; we had put sewage pipes;

“ the caveats everything; so when I came out of jail, I found seven (7) people who had invaded the land; they were saying that I would not return; they then built their own structures; I came; I did a settlement because they are people I work with we are together at Zanu PF. I engaged them and I offered them and you know they do not have that much money. That project is a low density suburb; with a minimum 1200 m² of fully surveyed stands 1000 of them.

So then made an offer that I would look for council stands in our areas (sic), where they are cheap. And then you will relocate and we agreed to this but they went behind and they received encouragement by Minister Garwe that they should invade it; I will protect you.

I am telling you this and I’m going to be as open as possible and as blunt so that when you write you will write the story with fully objective (detail.)

So I then was told, I have audios of these people, talking with the current local MP saying that they want to be accommodated as the Zanu PF party institution. So I was then told I have these audios that I will send you. So I then went and I engaged Zanu PF leadership and I was given a letter by the National political PC after it had been deliberated on at the party and they said that we cannot allow illegal invaders; who go to invade land willy and nilly when they have not paid anything to government; they have not done anything; and I received a letter and we engaged politically and we went on the ground and addressed people with the Minister Daniel Garwe; after we had been taken into meetings where we were told to stop fighting. We will send you the videos-the Minister Garwe saying that he did not send anyone to Clouverdale. Leave the area, I’ll send police right now.

Another family man affected by the raids tells ZimEye, “Last Friday Patronella Kagonye and her brother, Austin arrived with a tractor and began destroying houses.

“It destroyed 14 houses including cabins. The families are destitute as we speak.

“Today I arrived at Central Police station over the case of the shooting (of the teenager). I explained that it happened on the 5th April. The officer in charge said there is no case at all that was reported at Ruwa on the day.

“The victim went to the hospital and is being attended to.”

According to Kagonye, the teenager was shot after he was found among a group of suspects over an armed robbery that happened 170km away in Mt Darwin.

The evictees however comment saying the armed robbery allegation is a fake accusation raised by Kagonye through officers who she has sent for her private business, nothing to do with any policing. They say the police are private hirelings being used by Kagonye to illegally evict them.

• ZimEye follows up on the matter