Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, we trust, is exercising due diligence over the treasures of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi reportedly stashed away in South Africa.
Possibly as much as $10 billion (R99bn) is salted away in South Africa and neighbouring states, according to media reports.
The problem seems to be that even if these can be traced, it’s not fully clear whom they should be returned to because factional fighting continues to divide the Libyan government.
City Press reported at the weekend that two Libyan government factions were jostling to get hold of the assets in South Africa, making shady deals here with different government and ANC individuals and private brokers, arms dealers and the like.
One Libyan faction has reportedly promised to make large purchases of arms from the parastatal arms corporation Denel if it gets the loot.
This is where, presumably, Gordhan steps in, to protect South Africa’s integrity and the property of the Libyan people.
Last week, he quietly issued a statement that might have been a lot more significant than it looked.
Gordhan said he had met the Minister in the Office of the Libyan Prime Minister, Usama al Abid, on June 4, and agreed with the Libyan government that “the repatriation from South Africa of Libyan funds and assets will be handled in terms of UN protocols”.
This decision had been informed by the fact that the Libyan government had established a single body to co-ordinate the repatriation of assets to Libya.
This body – known as the Asset Recovery Committee – was co-operating with the committee and the Panel of Experts established by the UN Security Council in 2011 to co-ordinate “the orderly and transparent repatriation to Libya of assets frozen in various countries”.
Gordhan’s statement noted that the UN Panel of Experts had focused its efforts on identifying and monitoring the hidden assets of Libya Investment Authority – the sovereign wealth fund Gaddafi established in 2006 with initial capital of $56bn, and its subsidiaries, the Libya Africa Investment Portfolio and the Libya Africa Investment Company, as well as the assets of individuals placed under sanction by the UN Security Council.
Interestingly, the Libya Africa Investment Portfolio is known to have a stake in the holding company that owns the Michelangelo Hotel in Johannesburg.
The owners gave the assurance at the height of the revolution in Libya in 2011 that they would not repatriate profits until a new government was in power. That seems to have been what happened.
Presumably the Libyan and UN officials have this investment in their sights and are allowing it to keep earning money for the Libyan people.
But it is evident other assets are not in such safe hands.
And so was Gordhan, with his quiet statement last week, sending the message to his colleagues: “Enough of the squabbling over Gaddafi’s loot, we’re going to handle it properly through the UN and the Libyan government’s Asset Recovery Committee.”
That would certainly be the right way to go.
Against the background of a continuing battle for power in Libya, it would be crazy to hold on to the assets of the Libyan people in exchange for arms, for example.
If there is any doubt about who is really in charge in Tripoli, the South African government should simply identify, monitor and hold the assets until the dust settles.
That would not harm the Libyan people.
In its final report to the UN Security Council in March, the Panel of Experts to which Gordhan referred noted that Libyan authorities had given it the assurance that there was no lack of liquidity or funds in Libya.
Although the lucrative oil industry has not fully recovered, it is providing more than enough money to run the country.
Libyan officials responsible for recovering the foreign assets suggested to the panel that the freeze on these assets was a good way to keep them safe until they were needed.