Africa is experiencing its first continent-wide recession in 25 years due to the impact of the COVID-19, but many southern African states were already in economic distress prior to the pandemic – with Angola, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe partly because of unsustainable debt burdens they owe to China.
https://www.chathamhouse.org/2020/12/chinas-southern-africa-debt-deals-reveal-wider-plan