Banks count massive costs of looting
Almost R120m in hard cash was looted from ATMs and banks during the bout of civil unrest which swept across parts of Gauteng and KZN in mid-July.
This amount is much higher than initial estimates and doesn’t include the cost of repairs, notes a Business Insider report.
As many as 1 227 ATMs and 310 bank branches were vandalised or destroyed between 9 and 17 July, during a period of violent looting which left hundreds of shops in ruins and more than 300 people dead.
This is according to the latest count by the SA Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric), which has detailed the dire consequences of the ‘unprecedented destruction’ of banking infrastructure.
‘Not all notes are dye-stained and millions in unsoiled notes will be injected back into the economy,’ said Sabric CEO Nischal Mewalall.
‘This money is the proceeds of crime and there is now a war chest available to fund more organised crime, to corrupt more officials and to promote lawlessness.’
Sabric estimates that R119,400,243.00 in physical cash was looted from ATMs and in-branch safes.
The Banking Association SA initially estimated these cash losses to be around R20m.
Mewalall has urged businesses to be more stringent about cash threshold reporting in terms of section 28 of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act.
This clause, intended to combat money laundering, requires that cash payments of R25 000 and above be reported to the Financial Intelligence Centre.
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
