Illicit cash cases handled ‘badly’

MPs lambast crime fighting agencies

The elite crime fighting unit, the Hawks, and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) have come under fire in parliament for their “abysmal” report on the number of prosecutions related to illicit financial flows.

MPs voiced their unhappiness when senior officials from the Directorate for Priority Crimes and the NPA reported low prosecution and conviction rates on monetary crime related to illicit financial flows in the mining sector.

The MPs were speaking during a joint meeting of four portfolio committees of the National Assembly – police, finance, mineral resources, and trade and industry – to discuss progress being made by law enforcement agencies in prosecuting cases related to illicit financial flows.

The agencies that took part in the meeting included the NPA, SA Revenue Service, the Reserve Bank as well as the Finance Intelligence Centre.

Senior ANC MP and chairman Yunus Carrim led the charge, tearing apart the reports that had been presented by the acting head of the Hawks Yolisa Matakata and her colleagues from the NPA.

Matakata’s figures showed that of 121 suspicious transactions referred to the Hawks by the Reserve Bank, only 54 could be investigated under the classification of illicit financial flows.

Thirty-three cases were reported in Gauteng, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 11, the Western and Eastern Cape had three apiece, the Free State had two while Limpopo and Mpumalanga each had one case. Twenty-five of the cases remained under investigation and there were no criminal convictions.

“Your report, with due respect, is not credible, please do more and we are going to put pressure on the ministers and the DGs [directors-general] that you report to,” said Carrim.

The DA’s Alf Lees also lamented the low numbers reported by the Hawks.

ANC MP Derek Hanekom asked the Hawks if they were under political pressure to ignore certain cases, which Matakata denied.

The DA’s David Maynier wanted to know if the Hawks were investigating what happened to the R182-million related to the Estina dairy farm project in the Free State.

Matakata said they were probing the matter.

The acting boss of the Hawks, however, said part of their problem was that there was not adequate forensic capacity within the unit to deal with complex crimes such as the illegal flow of money from within the country.