The Progressive Professionals Forum (PPF) has warned against signing the Financial Intelligence Centre Amendment (Fica) Bill into law, saying it would make the public more vulnerable to “bank power”.
This followed fresh calls by the opposition yesterday for President Jacob Zuma to sign it into law after it was adopted by Parliament last month.
The president’s spokesperson, Bongani Ngqulunga, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
National Treasury spokesperson Mayihlome Tshwete was also not available for comment.
PPF president Mzwanele Manyi said the body still strongly objected to Zuma signing the bill into law. He said he did not understand the opposition’s urgency for Zuma to assent to the bill.
The DA’s David Maynier said the party was concerned that the president had not yet signed the bill. “A major concern is that for the second time Zuma seems to be hesitating to sign the Fica Bill into law,” he said.
Maynier accused the PPF of using their proximity to Zuma to stall its signing.
“The president needs a reasonable period to scrutinise amendments if they meet constitutional muster, but this is an urgent matter and the president must get on with it,” said Maynier.
IFP spokesperson on finance Mkhuleko Hlengwa said Zuma has had enough time to look at the bill and he must assent to it.
He said during discussions on the bill early this year, Parliament dealt with the constitutional questions and the bill was now in line with the constitution.
Steve Swart of the ACDP said that his party was concerned over Zuma’s delay in signing the bill.
“It is a matter of great concern that the president has not signed the Fica Bill because it has wide ramifications for us internationally,” Swart said.
“He cannot just sit on the bill; he must either sign it or refer it to the Constitutional Court.”
But Manyi said it was a good thing that Zuma has not signed it.
“We don’t think it’s worth signing it because there are a lot of wrong things in the bill. The things the bill is doing are do-able in the current law,” he said.
He said the current law on illicit financial flows deals with money laundering.
He said there was no urgency in the bill and the urgency has been created by the banks. “This bill will make us, as the public, more vulnerable to bank power.
“The notion that this bill will prevent money laundering is already in the existing Fica law. The current law has the Money Laundering Council, where you have State Security, National Treasury, SAPS and all the law enforcement agencies,” said Manyi.
Unisa Professor Somadoda Fikeni said there could be several factors causing the delay by Zuma in signing the bill.
He said one of the factors could be the fear of the dominance of the banks ahead of the ANC’s elective conference in December and the party funding issue during the 2019 general elections.
Fikeni added this was one of the issues raised during the hearings in Parliament on the Fica Bill.
He said they could be unhappy with the unbridled power of the banks.
Dawie Roodt, a chief economist at the Efficient Group, said despite the fact he did not like the Fica Bill, South Africa needed to sign it into law to meet international requirements.
“Whether I like it or not is irrelevant because this is a requirement by the international community,” he said.
He said there could be political considerations by Zuma for not signing the bill.
But Roodt warned of long-term consequences if the bill was not signed into law.
“What I can tell you is that questions are being asked already by the international financial institutions, investors and ratings agencies because banks have to comply with international standards,” he said.