Gadhafi wealth in S. Africa?
June 2, 2013
Four South African banks and two security firms could be storing 770 million euros ($1 billion) worth of cash, gold and diamonds once held by Libyan leader Muammar al-Gadhafi, said Johannesburg's Sunday Times newspaper.
The Libyan leader was killed in October 2011 – ending 42 years of rule - as he tried to escape rebel forces who stormed his hometown of Sirte.
The newspaper said the sum thought stashed in South Africa could be the largest haul yet found, but only a fraction of the former Gadhafi regime's foreign trove.
During his rule, Gadhafi was accused of confiscating the assets of Libya's private business sector and establishing a system of patronage.
Zuma visited
Libyan investigators had visited top South African officials, including President Jacob Zuma in December last year and April this year, the Sunday Times said.
Zuma visiting Gadhafi in Tripoli in April, 2010 (pictured above).
The paper quoted a spokesman for South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, Jabulani Sikhakhane, as saying that a "process to verify" the investigation by a Libyan group was "under way."
Zuma's spokesman Mac Maharaj said the president was approached by a "group saying they represented the Libyan government. They were referred to the [South African] National Treasury," Maharaj told the newspaper.
Letters from Libya's current justice and finance ministers had been sent to their South African counterparts, asking for cooperation in tracing Gadhafi funds "hidden" in South Africa, the Sunday Times said.
Libyan investment meager
Libya's economy remains in disarray with oil revenues making up at least 90 percent of the government's income. Major public projects are on hold.
Analysts say Libya's new rulers need to invest heavily in the private sector, for example in fisheries and tourism, alongside dates and olive plantations. Only around 2 percent of the desert country is arable.
In March, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said "major changes in economic policies and institutions" were needed to reduce Libya's unemployment.
It is put officially at 15 percent but is thought to be far higher. An estimated 8 percent of Libya's labor force work for militias on comparatively lucrative wages.
ipj/slk (AP,dpa, Reuters)