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Is South Africa a transit hub for dirty money and organised crime?

By Xolisa Phillip, in Johannesburg

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Posted on November 3, 2021 15:08

Former South African President Jacob Zuma speaks with his legal counsel in court during his corruption trial in Pietermaritzburg
Former South African President Jacob Zuma speaks with his legal counsel in court during his corruption trial in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, October 26, 2021. Jerome Delay/Pool via REUTERS

How state capture, a cash economy, and weakened law enforcement compromised South Africa’s financial system during the presidency of Jacob Zuma. The country has been given 18 months to address these deficiencies, but will it make it? What plans is South Africa making to counter money launderers and terrorist financiers?

“The bottom line or the key question is: Does crime pay in South Africa?” says the National Treasury’s Ismail Momoniat on observations contained in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)’s latest report.

Momoniat, the deputy director-general responsible for tax and financial sector policy at the National Treasury; Errol Makhubela, the acting chief director for financial markets and stability; and Ngoni Mangoyi, spoke to The Africa Report in a wide-ranging interview recently, about some of the findings in the mutual evaluation report on South Africa.

During the mutual evaluation, the task force team assessed the strengths and weaknesses of the South African financial system’s measures for anti-money laundering, counter‐terrorist Financing (CFT) and combatting the financing of proliferation (AML/CFT/CFP).

The team was led by the IMF and included officials from FATF member states as well

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