Tag: counter-terrorism

Despite being viewed as an administrative and burdensome expense with excessive paperwork sometimes causing potential delays to establishing business relationships and concluding transactions, Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA) compliance is more crucial than ever.

South Africa has been enlisted on the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) dreaded “Grey List” for over four months – fortunately, though, the country has not been standing still. Significant new provisions are shaking up the corporate landscape and by comprehensively implementing stricter controls, the country can transition more quickly from the Grey List to the coveted “Whitelist.”

In February this year, South Africa was greylisted by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) because of its failure to comply with its standards and measures to combat illicit financial flows, terrorist funding and potential threats to the integrity of the global financial system. This step is the consequence of the endemic corruption, generally referred to as “state capture” which has long prevailed in the country.

In a recent newsletter, President Cyril Ramaphosa said that South Africa knows what needs to be done to be removed from the greylist and that the fundamentals are in place. Eight areas of strategic deficiency have been identified by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) which government needs to urgently address in order to get off the greylist.

South Africa is the only permanent African member of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global anti-money laundering watchdog. This is why it came as a shock to hear that the country is close to being grey-listed following concerns raised by the global body.

The Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) is set to include more sectors under its purview as accountable institutions while addressing gaps that may exist in the country’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing framework.

Extremisms in Africa challenges both the efficacy and wisdom of purely militarised responses to extremist movements, typified by the Global War on Terror, as well as the cursory replication of international counter-terrorism frameworks promulgated by the United Nations and European Union in Africa.