On 13 June 2025, the Financial Action Task Force announced that “South Africa has substantially completed its action plan and warrants an on-site assessment to verify that the implementation of AML/CFT reforms has begun and is being sustained, and that the necessary political commitment remains in place to sustain implementation in the future.”

The final two action items require that South Africa demonstrates “a sustained increase in investigations and prosecutions of serious and complex money laundering in line with its risk profile” and “a sustained increase in the effective identification, investigation and prosecution of the full range of terrorist financing activities, consistent with its terrorist financing risk profile. The completion of the final two action items was attributed, in a media statement released by National Treasury, to the efforts of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation of the South African Police Service, the State Security Agency, and the National Prosecuting Authority.

The media statement suggests that South Africa may be removed from the grey list at the next FATF Plenary in October 2025, if the outcome of the on-site assessment before then is positive. 

See the National Treasury media statement here.