Johannesburg – The African National Congress (ANC) says it notes with concern the decision by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to “grey list” South Africa.
FATF – the International financial crime watchdog – on Friday announced that it had added South Africa to its “grey list” of countries under special scrutiny to implement standards to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing.
The ANC said the decision was based on the assessment by the FATF that South Africa has eight areas of strategic deficiencies related to the effective implementation of Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) laws.
The South African government has until November 2025 to address these deficiencies, failing which the country will be negatively affected economically.
“We welcome the active steps taken by the Minister of Finance [Enoch Godongwana] to address these matters by tabling an Action Plan to Cabinet,” the ANC said on Friday.
“These initiatives have already been communicated to the FATF President, Mr. Raja Kumar – a clear demonstration of South Africa’s commitment to work with the FATF and ESAAMLG swiftly and effectively to address all outstanding deficiencies and strengthen the effectiveness of our AML/CFT regime.
“Significantly, when South Africa was first assessed, we had well over 130 outstanding actions to avoid grey listing.
“Through serious commitment and swift action, the ANC government has ensured that only eight actions remain to be addressed.”
The ANC said it fully supports expeditious action to address the matters identified by FATF – consistent with recommendations by the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture – whose implementation the ANC, likewise, fully supports.
Regrettably, during the state capture years law enforcement institutions and other critical institutions such as the South African Revenue Services were weakened.
“We commend the excellent work that the SARS is doing, under the leadership of the Commissioner, to rebuild and restore its full capacity,” said the ANC.
“Similarly, we commend the efforts by the ANC government to restore the capacity of the justice crime prevention and security cluster.”
The ANC said fruits borne by the success of this work were demonstrated by the number of arrests, monies recovered, and several cases before SA courts.
“We call on government to take active steps swiftly to implement the Action Plan and the National Strategy on AML/CFT which was adopted by Cabinet in November 2022 so that South Africa can meet the November 2025 deadline,” the ANC said.
