Johannesburg – Strikes throughout the Limpopo to cling to energy by extending the Zimbabwe President’s time period past the constitutional mandate have caught the eye of the Democratic Alliance (DA) in South Africa, which has condemned the arrest of Zimbabwean opposition chief, Tendai Biti.
Commenting on the weekend detention of Biti, the DA stated on Monday, 23 March 2026, that it “condemns, within the strongest potential phrases,” the arrest.
Biti was arrested by state police on the afternoon of 21 March 2026.
Biti, who’s the chief of the Structure Defenders Discussion board (CDF), was detained by state authorities together with different get together members and a neighborhood journalist within the city of Mutare.
No particulars of the fees to be introduced in opposition to Biti have been made public, however he was anticipated to seem in courtroom at the moment.
The CDF has garnered widespread help in recent times for its opposition to constitutional amendments to increase the rule of Zimbabwe’s 83-year-old President Emmerson Mnangagwa, whose time period is ready to finish in 2028.
Zimbabwe just lately gazetted Structure Modification Invoice No. 3, which might introduce far-reaching proposals to usher in limitless presidential phrases for the governing ZANU-PF get together beneath the guise of technical reforms to electoral cycles and governance constructions.
“This could additional entrench the ZANU-PF’s dictatorship by bending the Zimbabwean structure to allow and justify full party-state management whereas crushing democracy,” the DA stated in an announcement issued by Ryan Smith, the get together spokesperson on Worldwide Relations and Cooperation.
“This newest act of wanton state brutality on political freedom ought to sound alarm bells to the South African Presidency and the Division of Worldwide Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO).”
The DA, which is the second-largest get together in South Africa’s Authorities of Nationwide Unity, said that Zimbabwe’s democratic backslide and subsequent state collapse proceed to threaten regional stability and are the supply of the nation’s largest migration crises.
“South Africa can’t proceed to show a blind eye to the disaster on its doorstep,” stated the assertion.
“We name on President Cyril Ramaphosa and Minister Ronald Lamola to sentence Tendai Biti’s arrest and urgently interact with Zimbabwean authorities via diplomatic channels to rethink this draconian legislative proposal.
“South Africa can’t proceed to prop up its fraternity of leaders who proceed to trample on democracy and the rights of residents throughout the Southern African area.
“This current act of state oppression follows a worrying pattern seen in nations comparable to Uganda and Tanzania, which have arrested opposition leaders on trumped-up costs of treason to silence opposing voices and sideline democracy.”
The DA said that the African Nationwide Congress (ANC), which holds the presidency and the ministry of international affairs within the GNU, can’t flip a blind eye to the emergence of autocratic despots that threaten the soundness of all the Southern African area.
“Part 11.9 of the GNU’s assertion of intent commits South Africa to a international coverage based mostly on human rights and constitutionalism,” the DA stated.
“South Africa can’t proceed to talk out in opposition to each different injustice in different elements of the world whereas ignoring probably the most egregious violations subsequent door.”
The DA additional said that President Cyril Ramaphosa and Minister Ronald Lamola have a “responsibility to advertise these values inside our area, and it’s incumbent on them to take their constitutional responsibility significantly to safe regional stability and prosperity by making certain that freedom and democracy survive and thrive”.
