TACKLING MONEY LAUNDERING IN EAST AND SOUTHERN AFRICA

This report evaluates the legislative and institutional capacity of several East and Southern African countries—specifically Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, and Malawi—to detect and control money laundering and terrorist financing. It identifies systemic weaknesses, including a lack of dedicated anti-money laundering (AML) laws in some states, poor inter-agency cooperation, and the vulnerability of both formal and informal financial sectors to the laundering of proceeds from corruption, drug trafficking, and organized crime.

• In Botswana, money laundering is not addressed in the Criminal Code, and while the Proceeds of Serious Crime Act (PSCA) defines the offence, it fails to specify what constitutes an "unlawful activity".
• Kenya's fight against corruption has been historically hampered by a judiciary that has selectively struck down anti-corruption legislation as unconstitutional.
• In Lesotho, the corruption trials related to the Lesotho Highlands Water Project revealed a laundering trail involving transnational corporations, intermediaries, and accounts in Switzerland and South Africa.
• Malawi lacks dedicated anti-money laundering laws, leaving its financial centres vulnerable; at the time of writing, a Money Laundering and Proceeds of Serious Crime Bill had been tabled twice but not passed.
• Currency speculation in Zimbabwe is identified as a major predicate activity for money laundering, where well-connected individuals profit from the disparity between official and parallel market exchange rates.
• Terrorist funding in the SADC region is linked to the exploitation of precious resources, such as gold and diamonds, and the use of tanzanite in parallel markets.

APA

GOREDEMA, C. (2004). TACKLING MONEY LAUNDERING IN EAST AND SOUTHERN AFRICA. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Mono107.pdf

Chicago

GOREDEMA, CHARLES. TACKLING MONEY LAUNDERING IN EAST AND SOUTHERN AFRICA. Institute for Security Studies, 2004. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Mono107.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=GOREDEMA |first1=CHARLES |title=TACKLING MONEY LAUNDERING IN EAST AND SOUTHERN AFRICA |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=October 2004 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Mono107.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{goredema2004tackling, author = {GOREDEMA, CHARLES}, title = {{TACKLING MONEY LAUNDERING IN EAST AND SOUTHERN AFRICA}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2004}, month = oct, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Mono107.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }