President Emmerson Mnangagwa has spoken glowingly about the late MDC founding father Morgan Tsvangirai while mocking the former trade unionist’s successor, Nelson Chamisa who he is squaring up against at the watershed polls on Monday.

Wrote Mnangagwa in The Washington Times, “The choice before the country next week is stark. This election is making clear that my opponents have a very different understanding and meaning of the word “change”. Up until the untimely passing of the opposition MDC-T’s admirable principal – Morgan Tsvangirai – the change that party proffered held clarity. At its root was democracy that is both sustainable and certified.

Meanwhile, Mnangagwa has reportedly accused his predecessor Robert Mugabe of “stalling investment” that could have “jump-started” the country’s economy “over the past decades”.

According to News Day, speaking during an official opening ceremony of a $4.3m Karo Resources platinum mining project in Mhondoro-Ngezi this week, president Mnangagwa said that the project was halted by his predecessor under unclear circumstance over a decade ago.

He said he was glad the long-time ruler was no longer president, and that there were “winds of change” in the country.

But people in the opposition think Mnangagwa is confused as he has failed to implement democratic and transparent electoral reforms demanded by Tsvangirai, instead he is accused of pursuing Mugabe’s policies of undermining the country’s laws and constitution through medling and interfering in a bogus electoral system.