South Africa was recently put on the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) ‘grey list’ for falling short of international standards to combat money laundering and other financial crimes.
On Monday, in a statement, the government’s International Cooperation, Trade and Security (ICTS) cluster said the Cabinet was considering a plan of action and was devoted to working with the FATF to address SA’s deficiencies.
The FATF found that SA needed to make sustainable progress in addressing eight areas of strategic deficiencies in the country’s administration of Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) laws.
For example, SA has to be able to show, among other things, that money-laundering and terrorism financing are taken seriously by conducting more investigations and having more prosecutions.
This would also include an increase in the utilisation of financial intelligence by law enforcement agencies, and an increase in mutual legal assistance requests to other countries, and the effectual implementation of targeted financial sanctions.
“Our action plan to address these deficiencies is aligned with the work we are doing to implement the recommendations of the State Capture Commission as outlined in our submission to Parliament in October last year,” said President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Ramaphosa said that, much like other countries, SA was dealing with the instability born as a result of globalised crime and criminal syndicates.
In an effort to eradicate financial exploitation, the country has forged collaborative relationships with Interpol and the FATF.
Furthermore, the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, announced that the police, NPA, SIU and the Financial Intelligence Centre, would receive additional funding to combat these issues. – SAnews.gov.za
