‘Concerning, but less dire than some people suggest’: Ramaphosa downplays SA’s greylisting

South Africa being greylisted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is “not much of a big deal” as the public’s reaction to the news would suggest.

This is according to President Cyril Ramaphosa.

On Friday, the FAFT announced its decision to add South Africa to the greylist and as a result, the country will be under close surveillance by the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog.

The move also means international banks will now place South Africa in a higher risk category since the country is considered to not be doing enough to combat illicit financial flows such as money laundering.

‘Opportunity’

In his weekly newsletter, Ramaphosa downplayed the impact of the greylisting.

While the FATF’s move has raised eyebrows about the state of South Africa’s financial institutions and law enforcement agencies, the president acknowledged that the situation was concerning, but it was “less dire than some people suggest”.

“It is noteworthy that the strategic deficiencies identified by the FATF do not relate directly to the country’s financial sector.

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“This means that financial stability and costs of doing business with South Africa will not be seriously impacted by the grey listing,” he said.

He said the FAFT’s decision was rather an opportunity for the country to strengthen the fight against financial crimes.

“This will ultimately place us on a stronger footing to effectively fight these damaging and dangerous crimes.”

‘As quickly as possible’

Ramaphosa added that government was determined to get the country off the list by implementing the recommendations by the State Capture Commission and continue to back key state institutions like the South African Revenue Service (Sars), National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

“We have gone through a rigorous process of addressing the issues that FATF has raised with us. The fundamentals are in place and we know what we need to do to get off the grey list.

“We are determined to do this as quickly as possible. This is important not only for our international standing, but also for our own ability to fight these crimes in our country,” he continued.

READ MORE: South Africa’s greylisting: what it means

“Like all countries we are dealing with the shifting sands of globalised crime and criminal syndicates. The challenge facing authorities is to anticipate criminal innovation and to respond swiftly and effectively.

“As a country we welcome the intensified monitoring by FATF. We have a focused action plan in place to address the remaining deficiencies identified by the FATF. Most of these deficiencies relate to the implementation of our laws.”

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.

ANC’s reaction

Meanwhile, the African National Congress (ANC) has blamed state capture for weakening the country’s law enforcement institutions.

“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,” the governing said on Saturday.

“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.”

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