South Africa’s removal from the FATF greylist restores investor confidence but highlights the ongoing fight against financial crime.
It is difficult to understate the importance of the decision by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to remove South Africa from its “greylist” of dodgy countries – those whose lax banking and enforcement practices allow what the FATF calls “illicit financial flows, terrorist funding and potential threats to the integrity of the global financial system”.
First, and foremost, it confirms to foreign investors that there is some system of accountability and vigilance when it comes to financial transactions.
No investor wants to plough money into a country – unless they are money-launderers – where there are lax controls.
Second, the arduous process SA had to go through to satisfy the 22 action items which needed to be dealt with before the FATF was satisfied, will have been of benefit to those across the spectrum.
Even the proverbial “little guy” can rest easier, knowing the government and the SA Revenue Service (Sars) is not sleeping on the job and that, hopefully, fraudulent financial activity will have been reduced.
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It is comforting too that, if you are the victim of fraud or theft, the system has been on the financial equivalent of a body-building regime.
Sars commissioner Edward Kieswetter was realistic about the news, describing it as “not a finish line but a milestone”.
“This delisting is a vote of confidence in SA’s progress, but it is not an end to our vigilance. The fight against financial crime and corruption is continuous.”
The strengthening of the detection and prosecutions processes so that they are up to international standards also greatly lessens the possibility of foreigners, or those with foreign links, capturing the state, as happened during the Jacob Zuma administration.
The priority now is to turn that new financial monitoring muscle on to the crooks and looters within our borders.
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