The government has created a potentially explosive situation by inviting two labour umbrella bodies to accompany its delegation to the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) annual conference in Geneva next month. In the past it has invited only the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) to represent the workers, and the Zimbabwe Confederation of Employers (ECZ), the employers. This time, for the ILO conference from 2-20 June, the government has invited its own creation, the Zimbabwe Federation of Trade Unions (ZFTU), one of whose top officials is the high-profile war veterans leader and chief of municipal police, Joseph Chinotimba.

My concern about the role of the media in improving investor perceptions is not entirely about whether the reporting is stereotypical or factual. It is not even about what gets reported; it is largely on how it is reported and who reports it. In my view, there is a global conspiracy by western media to portray Africa in bad light. Every country and every continent has its share of bad happenings but the bad happenings outside Africa are often treated as normal occurrences, while those in one or two African countries - sometimes triggered by past colonial history - are seen as horrific and reflective of the state of the whole continent. To make the situation worse, some African media have fallen into the same trap. This media thinks that western style negative reporting on Africa is the measure of maturity in journalism.