A man counts a big stack of money to buy some bananas in Harare, Zimbabwe. Photograph: Alexander Joe/AFP/Getty images

The numbers ceased to mean much to Sarah Chekani about the time inflation in Zimbabwe surged past 50,000% late last year. It has doubled again since then, to the alarm of Robert Mugabe heading into this month’s presidential election. But that hardly matters to Chekani and others like her who survive in an orbit touched only fleetingly by cash or the spiralling exchange rate.

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Robert Mugabe, addressing ruling party supporters at the Mahusekwa Stadium south-east of Harare, Zimbabwe, on March 5 2008. Photograph: Bishop Asare/EPA

Robert Mugabe has, for the first time, admitted that Zimbabwe faces a grave food crisis amid the collapse of the country’s agriculture. But he blamed it on “racist” Britain trying to oust him at this month’s presidential election.

Responding to pleas at a campaign rally in Plumtree, in the province of Matabeleland South, from local officials of the ruling Zanu-PF party “to ensure the speedy distribution of food in the province as people were running out of supplies”, Mugabe accepted there was a crisis.

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Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has signed into law a bill giving local owners the right to take majority control of foreign companies, including mines and banks, a government newspaper reported on Sunday.Analysts fear the move could sound the death knell for an economy that has also suffered from foreign investor flight, and is struggling with the world’s highest inflation rate of over 100,000 percent.

The government has sought to allay business fears of a blanket seizure of companies by saying the authorities would work with different industries to set timetables for foreign-owned firms to transfer shares to locals.

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Zimbabwe is among the worst tourist destinations in the world, according to a report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) that was released on Tuesday. 

The troubled southern African country that is in the grip of a severe economic crisis came a distant 117 out of the 130 countries that were surveyed in the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report for 2008. 

The report, the second after last year’s inaugural report, lumped Zimbabwe among countries such as Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Lesotho and Chad, which anchored the rankings at number 130. 

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Actor and popular Soweto pub owner Shimmy Mofokeng was shot dead by hijackers while approaching his driveway in Leonard Lane in Mulbarton, Johannesburg police said on Wednesday.

Spokesperson Captain Julia Claassen said Mofokeng (53) was shot in his upper body as he was about to drive into his yard in his white Kia kombi on Monday evening around 9pm.

“The suspects tried to hijack his vehicle. They shot him and he was fatally wounded.”

Claassen said the hijacking began when the robbers tried to take the bakkie of Mofokeng’s neighbour.

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US President George W. Bush on Tuesday extended by one year a series of sanctions against Zimbabwe officials, including President Robert Mugabe, deemed to be undermining democracy.

The decision renews Bush’s executive orders of March 2003 and November 2005 freezing the assets of more than 100 people and 30 entities considered to be opposing reforms in Zimbabwe.

“The crisis constituted by the actions and policies of certain members of the government of Zimbabwe and other persons to undermine Zimbabwe’s democratic processes or institutions has not been resolved,” Bush said in a statement.

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The British property company, Citigroup, and South African Breweries-Miller are among international businesses that are fund-raising for Simba Makoni’s presidential campaign in Zimbabwe’s March 29 elections, the state-controlled Herald reports. According to the newspaper this confirmed “reports that his election bid was part of the Western regime change agenda”.

Another company, Actis Africa, a leading private British equity investor based in London, was being used as a conduit to bring in money to Zimbabwe, the newspaper said.

Former Minister of Industry and Trade Nkosana Moyo, who was Makoni’s campaign strategist, was a managing partner in Actis Africa that had branches in China, Latin America, Asia and Africa, the Herald said.

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The government is considering banning all Zimbabwean sports men and women from competing in any sporting events in Britain, the BBC reported on Tuesday.According to the BBC’s Inside Sport programme, which cited sources at Downing Street, the ban is one of several options being considered to try to ensure Zimbabwe’s cricket team cannot tour England next year.

Brown’s office declined to comment and a spokesman for the foreign office would not comment on a complete ban, but said that the government was concerned about future cricket tours by countries ruled by “dictators” such as Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.

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Former Zimbabwe finance minister Simba Makoni has said there will be no backlash against veteran President Robert Mugabe if he topples him at this month’s general election.

“President Mugabe is someone who has a very special place in our history,” Makoni said in an interview, ruling out retribution against Mugabe over his tainted human rights record.

“He led our country together with [the late] vice-president Joshua Nkomo into independence in 1980. He led our people with distinction in the decade and a half of our independence. We will not take those away from our elders.

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Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s government has made it illegal to possess more than Zim$500m in cash, it emerged Monday -the equivalent of 21 US dollars. According to a new regulation published last month, anyone found with more than Zim$500m in cash will be guilty of “unlawful hoarding”.

Officially Zim$500m is worth around US$16 000. But it equates to only around US$21 on the dominant parallel market rates for foreign exchange.

It is also illegal for companies to settle any bills for more than US$250m (just over US$10) in cash. That means it is now technically illegal for traders to pay for 10 litres of fuel in cash.

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