Former finance minister and prominent lawyer Tendai Biti has been detained by police alongside several activists, his civic-rights group said, as tensions rise over President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s effort to extend his time in office. Biti’s organisation, the Constitution Defenders Forum (CDF), said he was organising a rally in Mutare when arrested. Police have not commented and his exact whereabouts were not immediately clear.
The arrests follow a cabinet decision backing a draft constitutional amendment that would lengthen presidential terms from five to seven years and shift the power to choose the president from voters to lawmakers. Opponents say the change would enable Mnangagwa to remain in power until 2030. Biti, the CDF and opposition parties have strongly opposed the proposals and say campaigners against the amendments have faced beatings and intimidation.
Critics, including Bulawayo mayor David Coltart, condemned the detention and accused Mnangagwa’s ZANU-PF party of using “illegal, authoritarian and unconstitutional means” to push the reforms, arguing the party lacks popular support for the changes. Mnangagwa, 83, was due to step down in 2028 after serving two five-year terms; ZANU-PF has ruled since independence in 1980.
Legal challenges are anticipated. Constitutional experts say altering presidential term limits would require a referendum and that such amendments cannot be tailored to benefit a sitting president. “Zimbabweans have got the right to approach the courts of law,” Biti said late last year, a right opponents appear likely to pursue as the debate intensifies.