President Emmerson Mnangagwa has blamed the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy on his predecessor Robert Mugabe who he accessed of applying populist policies on the economy.

Responding to questions from Japan’s media organisations on the sidelines of the three-day Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) summit yesterday, President Mnangagwa said his approach to the economy is far different from that of Mugabe.

Asked on what differs in his approach to leadership of Zimbabwe in comparison with former president Robert Mugabe, Mnangagwa failed to outrightly castigate his mentor who he removed through a military assisted coup in 2017. Mnangagwa described Mugabe as the respected leader of the liberation of the country.

“Former president Mugabe was our commander for 15 years, when we fought the liberation struggle against Ian Smith. In 1979, we went to Lancaster where we got our political independence.

“Secondly, former president Mugabe is the founding father of our Independence and the principle grievance that we had during the liberation struggle was for us to get back our land.”

The President said his liberalisation of Zimbabwe’s economy also showed that his economic vision is different from the former president who was known for promoting counterproductive populist policies.

“In July last year, I won the elections with two thirds majority in Parliament. I have the majority party in Parliament. I have now liberalised and opened the space so that in modern times you must compete for global capital to come into your country. We are doing the liberal measures in Parliament, a raft of economic measures, political and social measures.”