Chamisa Speaks On Mnangagwa Constitution Amendments

Opposition leader, Nelson Chamisa, has called for Zimbabweans to resist the amendments that have been gazetted by Mnangagwa which are being pushed through without following the law. Writing on X, Chamisa said what Mnangagwa is doing is an overthrow of citizens power.

Tendai Biti Speaks At Geza Funeral

Constitutional Defence Forum leader, Tendai Biti, yesterday spoke at the burial of Zimbabwe war veteran, Blessed Geza. As Biti was speaking, Mnangagwa deployed police outside his Harare Offices.

1. Biti was Geza’s lawyer, he also represented the war veterans in various cases

2. Sekai Holland was also present

3. Mathibela was also present

Key events for today

Top Trending News

1. Magaya Appears in court, case to be heard in the victim friendly court.
2. Olinda Chapel defrauded by Tafadzwa Matinyarare. Rutendo Matinyarare brought further visibility to the story on 16 February 2026 by posting a public statement on X (formerly Twitter). He addressed the circulating messages and reached out to Chapel directly to offer assistance in locating the individual and providing compensation if family ties were confirmed.

Business

Telkom delivered a strong performance driven by its “data-led strategy,” with significant growth in mobile subscribers and robust revenue from data services.

Key Financial Highlights:

• Data Revenue: Group data revenue rose 9.6% to R6.86bn, now making up 60% of total revenue.

• Mobile Growth: Mobile service revenue was up 7.2% , fueled by a 12.9% jump in mobile data revenue.

• Profitability: Group earnings (EBITDA) grew 8.4% to R3.23bn, with the margin expanding above its target range.

Operational Highlights:

• Subscriber Surge: Mobile subscribers surpassed 25-million, with mobile data subscribers soaring 29.3% to 19.3-million.

• Fibre Expansion: The fibre connectivity rate remained robust at 52.4% , with homes connected increasing to 786,490.

• Property Sales: The group received R214m from transferring 21 properties so far this year.

CEO Outlook:
CEO Serame Taukobong attributed the results to disciplined execution of their data strategy and cost optimisation. He confirmed the company is on track with its medium-term guidance, planning to continue investing in mobile and fibre infrastructure.

UK Investigation

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is currently finalising a large-scale motor finance redress scheme, with final rules expected to be published in February or March 2026. This probe follows an investigation into historical “hidden” commission arrangements—specifically Discretionary Commission Arrangements (DCAs)—which allegedly led to consumers being overcharged on car loans between 2007 and 2021. First Bank has made provisions of R13 Billion while Investec has made a provision of R1 Billion.

Africa

1. February 17, 2026, Humphrey Mdyetseni, the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Malawi’s National Economic Empowerment Fund (NEEF), is facing legal proceedings following his arrest for alleged abuse of office and money laundering. The arrests, which also included Anderson Mbozi (an engineer from the Department of Irrigation), stem from allegations of: Unfair Dismissal: The unfair dismissal of a personal assistant, who reportedly received a settlement of K150 million. Procurement Irregularities: The unauthorized purchase of two buildings valued at K1.6 billion each without following proper procedures.
2. The investigation into the death of former Zambian President Edgar Lungu has intensified, creating a new legal conflict between the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the Lungu family. SAPS has formally summoned and recorded statements from five members of the Lungu family as part of a criminal probe into allegations that the former president was poisoned. SAPS obtained a subpoena from what reports indicate is the Randburg Magistrate’s Court, directing Two Mountains Funeral Services to release Mr. Lungu’s body into police custody. The subpoena for the body itself suggests that SAPS intends to conduct its own forensic examination. News reports indicate that the police likely want to perform an autopsy and DNA testing to determine the exact cause of death and investigate the poisoning claims. Access to the body is crucial for such an investigation.

Notes

Alibaba: Qwen 3.5
Unveiled on February 16, this model is designed for the “agentic AI era.” It claims to be 60% cheaper and 8 times faster at large workloads than its predecessor, with “visual agentic capabilities” to perform tasks across desktop and mobile apps.

ByteDance: Seedance 2.0 & Doubao 2.0

Seedance 2.0: A viral text-to-video model capable of generating “cinematic blockbusters” and multi-shot sequences in 60 seconds.

Doubao 2.0: An upgrade to China’s most popular chatbot, specifically optimized for the “agent era” and reportedly matching GPT-5 class capabilities at a fraction of the cost.

Zhipu AI: GLM-5
Previously tested under the codename “Pony Alpha,” GLM-5 was officially released on February 11. It features advanced coding capabilities and the ability to execute long-running tasks without user prompts, positioning it as a rival to Anthropic’s Claude 4.5.

MiniMax: M2.5
Launched on February 13, this model is focused on “real-world productivity” with enhanced agentic tools. It is designed to be highly cost-efficient for industrial and professional use.

Tencent: HY-1.8B-2Bit
A highly compressed, low-storage model released on February 10, specifically built to run locally on consumer mobile hardware.

Kuaishou: Kling 3.0
A significant update to their flagship video generation model, further intensifying the competition with ByteDance and Western rivals like OpenAI’s Sora.

Specialized & Niche Models

Dexmal (DM0): An embodied-intelligence model released for robotics, integrating multimodal data for navigation and robot operation.

iFlytek (Spark X2): A model trained entirely on Chinese-made chips, focusing on practical applications in healthcare, education, and automotive sectors.

NetEase Youdao (LobsterAI): A desktop-level personal assistant agent that executes workflows locally for information retrieval and scheduling.