APA-Pretoria (South Africa) South African law enforcement agencies have recovered US$900 million stolen from government through corrupt activities in the country over the past four years, Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Ronald Lamola has said.
Speaking during the Association of African Anti-Corruption Authorities’ (AAACA) 6th General Assembly in Johannesburg on Monday, Lamola said the country’s National Prosecuting Authority Asset Forfeiture Unit (NPA AFU) recovered US$149 million in corruption and related matters during the current financial year.
Among the recovered funds, some US$587 million has been frozen over the past four years, while the NPA recovered US$134 million in State Capture cases alone, the minister said.
In the previous year, he said the NPA AFU secured freezing orders worth US$30 million to recover stolen funds from the corrupt and those who facilitated State Capture.
“Over the past four years, we have seen 13 new investigations – totalling 97 matters,” he said.
Working in collaboration with each other, the country’s Special Investigating Unit and the Special Commercial Crimes Unit proved essential in fighting money laundering and illicit financial flows, Lamola told the delegates.
The collaboration led to the finalisation of 364 cases in the last financial year and a conviction rate of 87.6%, the minister said.
In addition, Lamola said his office was hard at work to implement plans to strengthen the fight against corruption in the public sector.
NM/jn/APA