$10bn lost annually as illicit financial flows ride through South Africa - Rowden

South Africa is combatting a scourge of illicit financial flows out of the country. In 2015 former President Thabo Mbeki released a report in which he said that illicit financial outflows from South Africa far outstripped official development aid. Even Jacob Zuma raised the alarm about ‘the scourge of illicit flows” just before he departed and said South Africa signed several international treaties to exchange information. It is not always easy to come up with exact numbers of what the extent of the problem is, but a Washington based company, Global Financial Integrity has identified a $8.7trn gap in global reported trade. The GFI has indicated that $1 of every $5 that is sent out of South Africa in trade, is actually done illicitly, which means Finance Minister Tito Mboweni is missing out on an eye watering sum of trade taxes. The GFI’s Rick Rowden, a senior economist told Alec Hogg that they have developed a data tool that can analyse the individual transactions of companies. – Linda van Tilburg