[DEBATE] : (Fwd) Asset-stripping Africa: SA's role

[Patrick Bond]

(Ahem, "could become"? It's Pretoria's subimperial POLICY to become a 
hot money centre! "South Africa could become a preferred destination for 
illicit capital from African countries...")

The Mercury

Call to stem flow of cash to offshore tax havens

April 29, 2009 Edition 1

Quinton Mtyala

LACK of political will from some African governments had proved to be 
one of the stumbling blocks in uncovering the illegal flow of public 
funds into foreign safe havens.

Leonce Ndikumana, a senior researcher with the African Development Bank, 
said: "Given the political will, nothing is impossible in uncovering 
these illicit funds."

Ndikumana was speaking at the close of the first International 
Colloquium on Asset Stripping yesterday at the Cape Town International 
Convention Centre .

He said that for some African countries it was a simple matter of 
capacity building in using forensic technology to combat asset 
stripping, the extent of which was still not known due to a lack of 
reporting data from African countries.

The University of Cape Town's Dean of Commerce, Melvin Ayogu, said South 
Africa could become a preferred destination for illicit capital from 
African countries if existing loopholes were not closed. He said the 
private sector could help in combating asset stripping.