Democratic Alliance (DA) member on Finance, Dion George, has called on National Treasury to urgently intervene in softening the blow to the economy following the country’s greylisting.
The Financial Action Task Force greylisted South Africa in February this year, following concerns over financial crimes including money laundering.
Last year, Parliament enacted four pieces of legislation relating to combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
During a DA-sponsored debate on the economic impact of greylisting and what steps should be taken to get off the list, George argues that existing laws are insufficient if there is no political will to deal with the crimes.
“No matter how many laws are enacted, we will not exit the greylist when there is no political will to uphold the rule of law. Over R1 billion per month is stolen from Eskom, yet the Minister agreed to hide irregular and fruitless, and wasteful expenditures from auditors in the hope of obtaining a better audit outcome. That doesn’t make any sense unless it is designed to cover up the involvement of senior ANC politicians in the theft at Eskom.”
VIDEO | Economist outlines what greylisting means for SA:
