(Bloomberg) -- Rupiah Banda, who ruled Zambia for three years and faced corruption charges after leaving office on which he was acquitted, has died. He was 85.

Banda died on Friday night, his son Andrew said by phone. Banda announced in October 2020 that he was battling colon cancer. 

He assumed the presidency in 2008 after the death of the then-incumbent Levy Mwanawasa and led the southern African nation until 2011 when he lost elections to Michael Sata, the leader of the Patriotic Front.  

Banda’s tenure coincided with the global financial crisis. He navigated the market turmoil and Zambia’s economy grew by more than 10% in 2010, the fastest expansion since 1965. Still, his Movement for Multiparty Democracy was plagued by corruption allegations and staunch support for Sata from the now-defunct Post newspaper contributed to his electoral defeat.

Graft Case

The police arrested Banda in 2013 and charged him with benefiting from an oil deal with Nigeria after parliament voted to lift his presidential immunity. He denied wrongdoing and was found not guilty two years later.

Rupiah Bwezani Banda, widely known as “RB,” was born on Feb. 19, 1937, in Gwanda in what is now Zimbabwe, and studied economic history at Lund University in Sweden. 

He was a member of Kenneth Kaunda’s United National Independence Party and served as Zambia’s ambassador to countries including the U.S. and Egypt. In 1974, he was appointed permanent representative to the United Nations. He was named deputy president in 2006, a post he held until he became acting president after Mwanawasa’s death from a stroke in August 2008. 

Banda narrowly beat Sata in elections held in October that year, but was unable to repeat the feat in 2011 and stepped down. The PF won 42% support in a simultaneous parliamentary vote and the MMD, which had ruled for two decades, 36%.

Leadership Fight

Banda came out of political retirement to seek the MMD’s nomination to contest 2015 elections that were staged after Sata also died in office but the party chose televangelist Nevers Mumba instead. Banda endorsed the PF’s Edgar Lungu for president after the Supreme Court upheld Mumba’s candidature. Lungu went on to win the vote and his seven-year rule was marred by corruption allegations and a sharp rise in external debt. 

Hakainde Hichilema won the 2021 presidential vote by a landslide and Banda was seen to play a key role in convincing Lungu to cede power. He met both leaders at his residence soon after the announcement of the results, which Lungu had threatened to challenge.

Banda is survived by his second wife, Thandiwe, and eight children. 

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