Standard Bank says crime is still top of mind for potential investors in South Africa but the government is making some headway in addressing the problem.
Thabani Ndwandwe, the newly appointed chief risk officer at the Standard Bank Group, told Business Times that the rule of law and safety were critical considerations for investors and talent. Crime concerns pushed skilled and educated personnel to other countries.
“There’s no country that can ever be comfortable with crime,” he said. “You’ve got your white collar crimes, you’ve got violent crimes, et cetera. And ... South Africa does have some serious violent crimes.
“It’s very hard, for people who have options, to stay when they don’t feel safe.”
He said the prevalence of crime “can reduce the inflows of people investing” in South Africa.
But Ndwandwe said he was encouraged by Operation Vulindlela, an initiative by the Presidency and National Treasury, which he said was making reforms in the criminal justice system.
He was “encouraged by the fact that government, as well as the other players, are taking it seriously”.
“If you are about to invest in a country, the one thing you want to know is that your investments are safe. You want to know that if you’ve bought property, your properties are safe; you’ve got trucks on the road, they can move from point A to point B safely without being hijacked.”
Ndwandwe said Standard Bank had introduced instant SMS caller verification through its app to detect scam calls and alert customers.
“When a customer is on the phone… they look at the app, we tell them: ‘You are not with Standard Bank.’ We tell them: ‘We can see you’re on the call, but you’re not talking to Standard Bank.’
“And that's a very powerful capability that I think is good.
“And what we’ve seen is 33% of customers who we warn that they are on the call at least drop the call, which is important.”
Ndwandwe said he was confident South Africa would soon be removed from the greylist of the Financial Action Task Force, which is due to conduct a new assessment next month.
Eleni Panagiotopoulou, who heads efforts at the online gaming software company Softswiss to block money laundering, said financial crime cost the country an estimated R3.3bn in 2023, and digital platforms were becoming prime targets.
Anti-money laundering isn’t just a regulatory issue. It’s about building a sustainable and trustworthy industry
— Eleni Panagiotopoulou, Softswiss
With the rapid expansion in online gambling “comes a responsibility to ensure robust compliance frameworks are in place”, she said.
“Anti-money laundering isn’t just a regulatory issue. It’s about building a sustainable and trustworthy industry.”
The “reform tracker” created by Business Leadership South Africa in partnership with financial consultancy Krutham reports there has been progress in improving the criminal justice system. But the national anti-corruption charter is experiencing serious delays, it says, and the Prevention & Combating of Corrupt Activities Act (Precca) has been put on hold.
Nduduzo Langa, an analyst at Krutham, wrote that the anti-corruption charter had been recommended by the Zondo commission. But there had been “very little progress” and “no substantive action”.
“South Africa has developed a national anti-corruption strategy with advisory and co-ordinating bodies such as the National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council, but a distinct anti-corruption charter as a separate statutory or governance charter has not been set up yet,” he said.
He wrote that a recommendation by the Zondo commission that it be made a crime for a person or an entity to fail to prevent bribery had been implemented through the Judicial Matters Amendment Act, which came into force in April last year.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.