ANC blames state capture for SA’s greylisting, says steps being taken to solve problem

The African National Congress (ANC) said it is concerned that South Africa was greylisted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Friday. It also called on government to implement strategies to prevent illicit money flows into the country.

The FATF is a global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog.

SA added to grey list

The decision means South Africa will face increased monitoring by the FATF. It also means international banks will now place the country in a higher risk category.

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Countries are added to the greylist when they are considered to not be doing enough to combat illicit financial flows, including money laundering and terrorist funding.

“The decision is based on the assessment by the FATF that South Africa has eight areas of strategic deficiencies related to the effective implementation of our anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism laws that still require attention,” the party said.

It said South Africa has until November 2025 to address these deficiencies.

ANC blames state capture

The ANC blamed state capture for weakening the country’s law enforcement institutions and the South African Revenue Services (Sars).

“We commend the efforts by the ANC government to restore the capacity of the justice crime prevention and security cluster. The fruits borne by the success of this work are clearly demonstrated by the number of arrests, monies recovered and number of cases before our courts,” it said.

The ANC said when the greylisting shadow first loomed over South Africa the country had 130 actions that needed to be addressed. It said there are only eight of these that still need to be resolved.

“The ANC fully supports expeditious action to address the matters identified by FATF, which are consistent with recommendations by the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture – whose implementation the ANC fully supports.”

ALSO READ: Costs for banks and SOEs could spike if SA is greylisted

‘Damning indictment’

The Democratic Alliance (DA) did not share the ANC’s optimism.

It said the decision to greylist South Africa is a “damning indictment” of the country’s criminal justice system and the government’s inability to combat financial crimes.

“This situation has arisen primarily due to the inadequacy of our legal framework and the failure of the authorities to prosecute those responsible for such offenses,” the DA said.

The opposition party said the greylisting was unacceptable.

“The greylisting has placed our nation at significant risk, as the rest of the world now views South African companies and individuals as high-risk counterparties in global transactions.”

The Freedom Front Plus (FF+) also said the government had not done enough to prevent the greylisting.
It said the ANC was repeatedly warned to take action, but it waited until the last minute to do so.

“Improvement was mainly needed in two areas to avoid grey list status. The first was making relevant legislative amendments and secondly, demonstrating that financial offences are effectively combated,” said FF+ MP Wouter Wessels.

“The ANC failed in both respects,” he added.