President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday named former Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni as South Africa's new finance minister after accepting the resignation of Nhlanhla Nene from the post following his admission that he met with the Gupta family on several occasions.
Ramaphosa said Mboweni's experience would prove critical to his administration as it seeks to create much-needed jobs.
The president said Nene tendered his resignation on Tuesday morning and he accepted it after careful consideration.
"Minister Nene this morning submitted a letter of resignation to me in which he requested that I should relieve him of his position as Finance Minister of South Africa," the president said.
He added that Nene felt that was a risk that the revelations before the inquiry into the state capture scandal would interfere with his tasks as minister.
Ramaphosa stressed that Nene was not implicated in any wrongdoing and said it was "a measure of Nhlanhla Nene's character" that he felt he needed to resign.
He thanked him for his service to South Africa.
African News Agency (ANA)