The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is expected to conduct an on-site visit in South Africa, which is the final step before a country can be considered for removal from the grey list.

South Africa has made significant progress in completing all the required 22 recommended action items, outlined in the Action Plan adopted when the country was grey listed in 2023.

The country was grey listed due to deficiencies in its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regime.

National Treasury advisor Ismail Momoniat has commended the increased efforts of law enforcement agencies.

“Remember we were grey listed, now for a period of just over two years, and what FATF assessed was during this time. Every four months they assess whether there was an increasing trend in both investigations and in prosecutions,” says Momoniat.

He adds, “These were the two of the most difficult action items that we had to achieve and we expected them to be only dealt with towards the end because they weren’t just interested in an increase from one reporting cycle to another. In other words, every four months they wanted to see this increase being sustained throughout this period.”