Zambia’s Foreign Minister Stanley Kakubo (43) resigned on Tuesday, 26 December, following social media outcry about alleged dealings with a Chinese businessman.

The announcement was made by the President’s Office, hours after a social media frenzy triggered by a video showing individuals counting substantial sums of cash.

An image of a signed handwritten note, dated 08 July 2022, was also put online.

The note named a Chinese mining firm and a Zambian mining firm and said they had “exchanged $100 000.” The names of Kakubo and a Mr. Zang were on the note.

In a statement, President Hakainde Hichilema’s office said he had accepted Kakubo’s resignation.

It gave no reason for the resignation but added: “The president acknowledges the commendable work and leadership” of Kakubo in the government.

Kakubo, who had been Foreign Minister since September 2021, said in a letter he was resigning because of “malicious claims over a business transaction between my private family business and our business partner with whom we still have good relations.” He added:

This decision is to ensure that our government is not distracted from continuing to look for solutions for bettering the lives of our people.

Chinese companies have invested heavily in the Zambian mining industry, a bedrock of the southern African nation’s economy. The East Asian economic powerhouse is a major importer of Zambian copper.

The Chinese embassy said in 2022 that more than 600 Chinese businesses had invested more than US$3 billion in Zambia.

China has also been a major player in international efforts to restructure Zambia’s foreign debt after the southern African country defaulted on its sovereign debt in 2020 as the COVID-19 crisis grew.