Saturday, May 27, 2023
  • Login
Upgrade
The Southern African Times
  • Home
  • Southern Africa
  • Business
    • African Start ups
    • African Continental Free Trade Area
  • Tech
    • Lifestyle
      • Health
      • Culture
      • Food and Drink
      • Entertainment
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Events
  • SAT Jobs
  • About Us
    • Advertise with Us
    • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Southern Africa
  • Business
    • African Start ups
    • African Continental Free Trade Area
  • Tech
    • Lifestyle
      • Health
      • Culture
      • Food and Drink
      • Entertainment
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Events
  • SAT Jobs
  • About Us
    • Advertise with Us
    • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
The Southern African Times
No Result
View All Result
Home in Southern Africa South Africa

Ramaphosa on South Africa’s greylisting – it’s not that bad

by SAT Reporter
February 27, 2023
in South Africa
0
Ramaphosa on South Africa’s greylisting – it’s not that bad

South Africa's president Cyril Ramaphosa delivers the State of the Nation Address (SONA) to a joint sitting of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces in Cape Town, South Africa, February 10, 2020. Nic Bothma/Pool via REUTERS

0
VIEWS

President Cyril Ramaphosa says that South Africa being added to the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF’s) global grey list is concerning, but “less dire” than some suggest.

Writing in his weekly letter to the public, the president said the country has gone through a rigorous process of addressing the issues raised by the global financial watchdog, adding that fundamentals are in place.

“We know what we need to do to get off the grey list. We are determined to do this as quickly as possible,” he said.

The president said that the listing gives South Africa an opportunity to tighten its controls and improve its response to organised crime – ultimately placing it on a stronger footing to effectively deal with such crimes.

“It is noteworthy that the strategic deficiencies identified by the FATF do not relate directly to the country’s financial sector. This means that financial stability and costs of doing business with South Africa will not be seriously impacted by the greylisting,” said Ramaphosa.

On 24 February, the country was officially greylisted by the FATF, scarring the reputation of the country as a jurisdiction to conduct business with and possibly leading to higher transaction costs and necessitating more steps of compliance when doing business, especially internationally.

Despite a myriad of new laws fast-tracked in late 2022, South Africa failed to meet all eleven recommendations made by the FATF in 2019 to effectively put measures in place to combat money laundering and financing terrorism.

Following the listing, the rand tanked to its worst level since May 2020 despite the move, by and large, being priced into the markets.

Intellidex founder and analyst Stuart Theobald said that the impact of greylisting is hard to measure.

“The main consequences will be felt by businesses that operate internationally. This can result in increased costs and administrative burdens and discourage multinational companies from investing in the country,” said Theobald.

He added that the reputational damage would be hard to come back from.

“Other countries must treat South Africa with a heightened level of suspicion. Several countries require their institutions to apply ‘enhanced due diligence’ of South African counterparts.”

“In practice, this means more frequent assessments, requests for more details on sources of funds and procedures, and more senior management engagement with foreign counterparts. That is if those counterparts will do business with South Africans at all,” Theobald said.

Ramaphosa said that the greylisting had caused a lot of concern about the state of the country’s financial institutions, law enforcement agencies and investment environment.

He noted, however: “The situation is concerning but less dire than some people suggest.”

The president said the original evaluation by the FATF took place in 2019 during the state capture era, which was detrimental to the South African Revenue Service (SARS), the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the Hawks.

According to Ramaphosa, since the results of the mutual evaluation report were published in 2021, out of 67 recommendations, eight were not met.

“When it comes to developing world-class expertise, legislative reform and strengthening state institutions to combat complex financial crime, we have come a long way. This is notwithstanding deliberate attempts to erode the state’s ability to detect, investigate and prosecute such crimes during the state capture era,” he said.

“We have restored credibility to key institutions like SARS and the NPA to enable them to fulfil their respective mandates. We have bolstered the powers of the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) by establishing a Special Tribunal to recover public funds stolen through corruption and fraud and an Investigative Directorate in the NPA to investigate serious corruption.”

Enoch Godognwana, the minister of finance, announced additional funds to be allocated to the police, the NPA, the SIU and the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) last week, he added.

“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.”

It is now up to South Africa to demonstrate, among other things:

  • An increase in the investigation and prosecution of serious and complex money laundering and terrorism financing
  • An increase in mutual legal assistance requests to other countries
  • An increase in the use of financial intelligence by law enforcement agencies
  • The effective implementation of targeted financial sanctions
Previous Post

4 changes coming soon to WhatsApp

Next Post

Kenya to set up 136 solar mini-grids for remote communities

SAT Reporter

Related Posts

Sports for Ubuntu runners tackle London Marathon for charity
South Africa

Sports for Ubuntu runners tackle London Marathon for charity

by SAT Reporter
April 26, 2023
South Africa reaffirms participation in the International Criminal Court
South Africa

South Africa reaffirms participation in the International Criminal Court

by SAT Reporter
April 26, 2023
South Africa Enacts Employment Equity Bill to Promote Workplace Diversity and Equality
South Africa

South Africa Enacts Employment Equity Bill to Promote Workplace Diversity and Equality

by SAT Reporter
April 13, 2023
South Africa’s unions, government agree 7.5% wage hike
South Africa

South Africa’s unions, government agree 7.5% wage hike

by SAT Reporter
April 3, 2023
South African authorities arrest 87 ahead of anti-government protest
South Africa

South African authorities arrest 87 ahead of anti-government protest

by SAT Reporter
March 20, 2023
Next Post
Kenya to set up 136 solar mini-grids for remote communities

Kenya to set up 136 solar mini-grids for remote communities

Browse by Category

  • African Continental Free Trade Area
  • African Debt
  • African Start ups
  • Algeria
  • Analysis
  • Angola
  • Asia
  • Botswana
  • BOTSWANA
  • BRICS
  • Burkina Faso
  • Burundi
  • Business
  • Business
  • Cameroon
  • Central Africa
  • China
  • Climate Change
  • Climate Changev
  • Congo Republic
  • COVID 19
  • Culture
  • Democratic Republic of Congo
  • Eastern Africa
  • Education
  • Egypt
  • Energy
  • Entertainment
  • Environment
  • Ethiopia
  • Europe
  • Fashion
  • Feature
  • Finance
  • Food
  • Food and Drink
  • Foods
  • Ghana
  • Global
  • Guinea
  • Health
  • Immigration
  • in Southern Africa
  • International news
  • Just In
  • Kenya
  • Lesotho
  • Libya
  • Life Style
  • Lifestyle
  • Malawi
  • Malawi
  • Mali
  • Markets
  • Middle East
  • Mozambique
  • Namibia
  • Nigeria
  • North Africa
  • North-Eastern Africa
  • Opinion
  • Politics
  • Racism
  • Rwanda
  • SAT Jobs
  • Senegal
  • Seychelles
  • South Africa
  • South Sudan
  • Sports
  • Startup Africa
  • STOCK EXCHANGE
  • Sustainablity
  • Tanzania
  • Tech
  • Togo
  • Travel
  • Travel
  • Tunisia
  • Uganda
  • Uncategorized
  • West Africa
  • World
  • World
  • ZAMBIA
  • Zambia
  • ZIMBABWE
  • Zimbabwe

Browse by Tags

africa African business news Africa News african footballer african markets African news African start-up banking Business China Classic Climate change Content currency economy Explore Bali Finance football Health Investment Kenya Life Style Markets Market Stories news Nigeria oil and gas Opinion Pandemic Politics Premium Russia South Africa Southern African News sports Stay Home technology Travel United Kingdom United Stated Vaccine Work From Home Wuhan Zambia Zimbabwe

WHO WE ARE

The Southern African Times is a regional bloc digital newspaper that covers Southern African and the world news. The paper also gives a nuanced analysis on news and covers a wide range of reporting which include sports, entertainment, foreign affairs, arts and culture.

Facebook Twitter Youtube Instagram Rss

Copyright © 2022 The Southern African Times | Powered by The Southern African Times

Privacy Policy

Terms and Conditions

  • Home
  • Southern Africa
  • Business
    • African Start ups
    • African Continental Free Trade Area
  • Tech
    • Lifestyle
      • Health
      • Culture
      • Food and Drink
      • Entertainment
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Events
  • SAT Jobs
  • About Us
    • Advertise with Us
    • Contact Us

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?