South Africa's finance minister Enoch Godongwana said on 1 November in his 2023 medium-term budget speech that it was "working hard to address deficiencies in our fight against organised crimes and illegal financial flows" with the aim of exiting the FATF grey list in early 2025.
He said: "Since February, when South Africa was grey listed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a large number of government departments and agencies - including the police the Hawks, NPA, SIU, SSA, the Reserve Bank, FSCA, and SARS - have been working hard to address these deficiencies.
"The FATF noted at its plenary meeting last week that such work is showing positive results, with South Africa having addressed 15 of the 20 technical deficiencies in our legal framework, and making good progress on 17 of the 22 effectiveness action items, including 2 that are now deemed to be largely addressed."
He added: "However, there is also a significant amount of work that must still be done, particularly with regard to the investigation and prosecution of complex money laundering cases and terror financing, the identification of informal mechanisms for remitting money around the world, and the recovery of the proceeds from crime and corruption.
"Government expects to address all the deficiencies identified by FATF by early 2025."
The Cayman Islands and Panama both exited the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list, along with Jordan and Albania, at the conclusion of its October 2023 plenary today in Paris on 27 October.
FATF also grey listed one new country, namely Bulgaria, and approved the UAE, Gibraltar among others for exit compliance inspections.
International Investment is holding its inaugural Africa Forum 2023 on 8 November at The Forum Embassy Hill in Cape Town, South Africa. Click here for more details and to attend.
