SA is sending a senior delegation to meet the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in Morocco on Friday as the country scrambles to avoid being added to a greylist of countries deemed to have inadequate measures to combat financial crime.
The National Treasury announced late on Friday that SA authorities will have a face-to-face meeting with the FATF’s Joint Group in Rabat, Morocco’s capital, on January 13 to report on progress made in addressing deficiencies in its ability to combat illicit financial activity. Ismail Momoniat, the Treasury’s acting director-general, will lead SA’s team during their meeting with the Paris-based FATF.
SA’s delegation will include officials from the Treasury, the department of justice and constitutional development, the State Security Agency, Special Investigating Unit, Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), SA Police Service, Reserve Bank, Financial Sector Conduct Authority, SA Revenue Service, department of social development, National Intelligence Co-ordinating Committee, the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission and the National Prosecuting Authority.
FATF’s Joint Group is scheduled to report to its International Co-operation Review Group (ICRG) on the progress SA has made in addressing the deficiencies that were identified in the Mutual Evaluation Report, before the ICRG makes a final recommendation to the FATF Plenary before its meeting during February 22-24.
SA took a major step towards potentially avoiding FATF’s greylist when President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law two crucial acts on December 30 aimed at bolstering the country’s ability to combat terrorist financing and other financial crime.
The two critical pieces of legislation were the Protection of Constitutional Democracy against Terrorist and Related Activities Amendment Act and the General Laws (Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorism Financing) Amendment Act.
The legislation is aimed at bringing SA’s Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) credentials in line with global best practice in an effort to avoid being greylisted by the FATF.
“These laws will strengthen the fight against corruption, fraud and terrorism, and assist SA in meeting the international standards on AML/CFT, and to reduce the prospect of greylisting,” the Treasury said in a statement on Friday.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.