This comes after the latest Global Safety Index ranked SA 129th out of 166 countries, a fall of 50 places, reflecting growing concerns over crime and public security. The index assesses countries based on safety, law enforcement, and institutional integrity.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mashaile said the downgrade undermines confidence in SA\u2019s governance and its efforts to strengthen systems that combat money laundering and terrorist financing, key requirements for exiting the FATF grey list.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe unfortunate part is when those who are at top management of the police get to be fingered in acts of criminality, it affects us internationally,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIt also suggests that all other institutions in the world and in Africa look at us as the almost capital city of crime. I mean, position 129 out of 166, this is a serious cause for concern.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
SA was placed on the FATF grey list in 2023 after the global financial watchdog found deficiencies in its mechanisms to prevent financial crimes and enforce anti-money-laundering regulations. Since then, the government has introduced several legal and institutional reforms to meet FATF standards.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
However, Mashaile said, continued reports of corruption and misconduct among senior police and government officials were eroding the credibility of those reforms.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He added that improved accountability within law enforcement, stronger border controls, and better intelligence coordination were essential for restoring international confidence.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–SABC\/ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12964,"template":"default||default","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-12963","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"South African (SA) Security Strategist Andy Mashaile has warned that the country\u2019s sharp decline in global safety rankings will make it even harder to be removed from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list.||South African (SA) Security Strategist Andy Mashaile has warned that the country\u2019s sharp decline in global safety rankings will make it even harder to be removed from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list.","published_date":null,"news_description":"South African (SA) Security Strategist Andy Mashaile has warned that the country\u2019s sharp decline in global safety rankings will make it even harder to be removed from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list.||South African (SA) Security Strategist Andy Mashaile has warned that the country\u2019s sharp decline in global safety rankings will make it even harder to be removed from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/12963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/12963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18309,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/12963\/revisions\/18309"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=12963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}