Beijing has sought to improve its public image through a soft-power strategy meant to show Zimbabweans that the dragon has a soft, charming underbelly. In 2006, China opened a Confucius Institute at the University of Zimbabwe to spearhead the teaching of Mandarin and the propagation of Chinese culture. Students are keen on mastering the language, seeing it as a passport to new horizons on the international job market.

Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Australia has asked the Australian government for asylum, saying she fears for her safety and believes Zimbabwe President Mugabe’s government is “illegitimate”. Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since independence from British rule in 1980, won a disputed election in July amid allegations by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai of widespread rigging and fraud. Mugabe denies the accusations.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has threatened to retaliate against companies from Britain and the United States if the two Western powers persist with sanctions that he described as "harassment." Mugabe's comments on Sunday follow scrutiny from outside observers of his re-election in a July vote that rival Morgan Tsvangirai denounced as a "coup by ballot" which involved alleged widespread vote-rigging.

With my pen and a notebook, I was trying to take on Zimbabwe: the country in southern Africa I call home and maintain a fierce love-hate relationship with. Indeed, there was a feeling that day of writing to an aloof and self-satisfied lover, whose transgressions one has been cataloguing in silence, waiting for an opening to iron things out. But instead of finding new things to rant about, novel problems to propose solutions to, I found myself confronted by the sameness and repetitiveness that characterizes Zimbabwe’s politics.

Social media, and Twitter in particular, enables people to follow news events in real time around the world. On 31 July 2013 and into 1 August, #ZimElections became a worldwide trending topic as the voting in Zimbabwe concluded, and Zimbabweans woke up to a state of limbo. The Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) was not to release the elections results until next Monday – an eternity in today’s connected world – but with a law prohibiting anyone from making pronouncements about the results, surely everyone would hold their tongues till that date?

South Africa has generally had strong relations with Zimbabwe, but some say a last week's hiccup over criticism of election preparations reveals the diplomatic fine line the southern African nations walk. Last week, Lindiwe Zulu, a top international advisor to South African President Jacob Zuma, voiced concern that Zimbabwe was not well-prepared for the July 31 election, saying Zuma had spoken to Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe by phone about the matter.

On Wednesday, Robert Mugabe, will seek another term as Zimbabwean president in a rematch of the contentious 2008 election with challenger Morgan Tsvangirai. ut this time, 33 years after the 89-year-old first took office, the icon of the African independence era is being hounded by a creation of the Internet age. In March, a self-proclaimed disaffected insider of the ruling Zanu-PF party created the Facebook page of "Baba Jukwa".