Compli-Serve says SA still faces a 60% likelihood of being grey-listed before the end of February, despite the fact that two critical pieces of legislation were hurried through in late 2022.

A Business Day report notes President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law two Acts on 30 December in an effort to bolster the country’s ability to combat financial crime ahead of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) 24 February decision on whether to add SA to a greylist of countries deemed to have inadequate controls for anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism.

The Protection of Constitutional Democracy against Terrorist & Related Activities Amendment Act and the General Laws Amendment Act were seen as crucial to avoid greylisting.

But questions still remain over SA’s ability to enforce the laws effectively and prosecute transgressors.

‘I remain fairly certain that we will get grey-listed, but perhaps the 85%-15% split in agreement of a grey-listing may be narrowing in (light of) the efforts we have made to address some of the deficiencies as outlined by the FATF,’ said James George, compliance manager at CompliServe SA.

‘Perhaps 60%-40% would be more realistic as we approach D-Day,’ he said.

‘Just maybe SA can pull a rabbit out of the hat at this late stage, but I would be very surprised just given the sheer number of anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism deficiencies in our apparatus versus some of the other countries and territories that are still grey-listed.’

Full Business Day report