MUTARE – Tendai Biti, the convener of the Constitution Defenders Forum (CDF), and the organisation’s programmes director Morgan Ncube will appear at Mutare Magistrates Court on Monday after being arrested by armed police on Saturday for allegedly failing to notify authorities of a private meeting.
The two are being held at Mutare Central Police Station.
They are charged with contravening the Maintenance of Peace and Order Act by failing to notify the police of their intention to hold a private meeting, a charge the CDF flatly rejected as legally baseless.
“The Maintenance of Peace and Order Act specifically excludes private meetings from the jurisdiction of the Zimbabwe Republic Police,” the CDF said in a statement issued on Sunday.
“As CDF we insist that our convener and programmes director have not violated any law.”
The CDF, which Biti co-founded, has been at the forefront of the campaign against the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 3) Bill, 2026.
The arrests come as parliament prepares to debate the bill which would remove direct presidential elections and extend parliamentary and presidential terms from five to seven years. Critics say it will also weaken independent institutions including the judiciary and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission while concentrating power in the presidency.
The bill has drawn opposition from a broad coalition of civil society groups, lawyers’ associations, students and the country’s major church bodies.
“These arbitrary arrests are a calculated act to silence those opposed to the constitutional amendments by a regime determined to close the little remaining democratic space in Zimbabwe,” CDF said.
“If Tendai Biti, Morgan Ncube and the CDF in general have committed any crime, it would be a crime of bravely leading the campaign against the amendment of the constitution of Zimbabwe under the Amendment Bill No. 3 and saying no to President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s 2030 agenda.”
The CDF called for the immediate release of both men and urged Zimbabweans to show up at court on Monday in solidarity.
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) reported on Saturday that Dylan Cole, one of its leaders at Chinhoyi University, was “captured by Zanu PF from a lecture theatre where he was attending a meeting on the Constitutional Amendment Bill No. 3 and opposing the bill.”
Cole had still not been found on Sunday. – ZimLive