South African authorities will meet peers from a global financial watchdog next week as they seek to avert being placed on its so-called grey list denoting nations with shortcomings in tackling illicit financial flows. A delegation led by the National Treasury’s acting director general Ismail Momoniat will meet with the Financial Action Task Force’s Joint Group in Rabat, Morocco, on January 13, the National Treasury said on Friday in a statement.
Officials from the central bank, tax office and law enforcement agencies will participate in the meeting in which they’ll update the Paris-based body on the progress made by the South African authorities. Africa’s most industrialised economy was found wanting in all 11 of the FATF’s effectiveness measures to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism. The evaluation was carried out in 2019 following an era of endemic graft during former president Jacob Zuma’s nine-year rule.
Legislation is important but the issue is implementation and sustaining the implementation over long period.