Issued by: Ministry of Justice
MEDIA STATEMENT REGARDING A SOUTHERN AND EASTERN AFRICAN MONEY LAUNDERING CONFERENCE, HELD ON 1 - 3 OCTOBER 1996 IN BELLVILLE, RSA.
The Southern and Eastern African Money Laundering Conference, sponsored by the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Financial Action Task Team, will take place from 1 - 3 October 1996, at the Bellville Inn in Cape Town. The Minister of Justice, Dr A M Omar, will open the conference on Tuesday, 1 October 1996.
During this three-day conference various topics of interest to all the national and international delegates will be discussed. Some of the topics are: - Money laundering methods and techniques; and - National co-operation between legislator, financial sectors, legal and law enforcement sectors to implement anti-money laundering measures.
During the conference various workgroups will look at, inter alia, model laws to combat money laundering; Commonwealth Guidance Notes for the financial sector; and enforcement strategies for combatting money laundering. The aim of the Conference is to combine all input into the formulation of a regional strategy and future action plans.
In view of the serious threat that drug trafficking, money laundering, corruption a nd other forms of organised crime pose, it is imperative that all countries globally co-ordinate actions in this regard. South Africa has already embarked on a number of measures to bring us in line with the rest of the world and extradition agreements are at present being evaluated with a view to being more prominent globally. In addition, the International Co-operation in Criminal Matters Bill 1996, The Proceeds of Crime Bill 1996 and The Extradition Amendment Bill 1996 have been approved by Parliament and are major pieces of legislation designed to increase the capacity to fight drug trafficking and money laundering through hitting at the profits of crime. which will boost state coffers and enable the Government to appoint more personnel to deal with the expanding proportions of crime.
The South African Law Commission, after investigations pertain- ing to the whole problem of money laundering, also released a work- ing paper on this issue and related matters during April 1996, and based on the comments received on this paper, preliminary recommen- dations for a regulatory framework and proposed draft legislation were released in the form of a further discussion paper on 3 June 1996.
This Conference follows also on the recent meetings of the South African Development Community (SADC) Council of Ministers in Maseru during which a protocol to help reduce and eventually eliminate drug trafficking, money laundering, corruption and the illicit use and abuse of drugs, through co-operation amongst member states and their respective enforcement agencies, was entered into. It is envisaged that this will be a major step to help protect the country from being used as a conduit and dumping ground for drug trafficking.
The Ministry of Justice believes that these measures embarked on will strengthen the strategies to deal with organised crime and will result in improved co-operation between RSA-agencies and other states.
The Conference will be open to all the media for the duration of the Conference and the media are called upon to report as comprehensively as possible on the proceedings of the Conference.
ISSUED BY THE CHIEF LIAISON OFFICER ON BEHALF OF THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE
Pretoria 30 September 1996
Enquiries: Mr Paul Setsetse Tel: (021) 45 7506/7 Cell: 083 252 4770