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Over R80bn leaves SA illegally every year - Mahlobo

───   07:11 Wed, 27 Apr 2016

Over R80bn leaves SA illegally every year - Mahlobo | News Article

Cape Town - Over R80bn leaves South Africa illegally every year, Minister of State Security David Mahlobo has said.


Addressing Parliament while presenting his budget vote on Tuesday, Mahlobo said in the past year, they had identified global illicit financial flows as a major security concern that knew no borders.

“South Africa is estimated to be losing over R80bn per annum through illicit financial outflows. Illicit flows from Africa could be as much as US$80bn per annum,” he said.

He said this was double the official development assistance that Africa received.

The estimate may be short as accurate data did not exist for all transactions and for all African countries, Mahlobo said.

“This phenomenon has robbed our continent of its potential of meeting our developmental goals, whilst other countries' laws have provided for safe havens for these actors,” he said.

He said work was being done to rectify the situation.

“We have registered progress in combating the multi-billion rand trade in illicit tobacco and cigarettes with a seizure of large quantities of illicit cigarettes in the region. We need to double our efforts in dealing with the same situation in our shores with the multi-agency task teams already at work,” said the minister.

He said they were continuously strengthening their partnership with the South African Revenue Service (SARS) in an effort to fight illicit economic activities.

It was only by combining forces that criminal networks could be dismantled, he said.

- News24.com

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