The Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) has launched an upgraded beneficial ownership system for law enforcement agencies. The tool is meant to help investigators fight money laundering, terrorist financing and other financial crimes, SABC News reported.
The new Beneficial Ownership Disclosure Module gives law enforcement agencies instant access to data about the real people who own and control companies.
Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau spoke at the launch on Friday. He said the system will help South Africa stay off the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list.
“We’re quite comfortable about the work that we’ve done,” Tau said. He said the country is ready to defend its financial rules at the FATF Mutual Evaluation in October.
South Africa left the FATF grey list in October 2025. It spent 32 months working through 22 action items before it was removed. The country is still under close global monitoring.
Tau said Cabinet gets regular reports on progress and on the challenges that remain. He said departments and agencies across government have worked to deal with financial crime.
He said South Africa’s place in the world calls for strict financial oversight. “South Africa sits at some of the most demanding tables in the world,” Tau said, pointing to the country’s membership of the G20 and the FATF.
According to Tau, the beneficial ownership register opened on 1 April 2023. Since then it has received more than three million filings, covering both local and foreign owners.
CIPC Commissioner Advocate Rory Voller said the system is already showing results. He said investigators can now get the data with a click of a button, without travelling to Pretoria.
Voller said the CIPC has also linked company records to beneficial ownership data. This lets investigators see who owns what, which companies people are behind and who is related to whom.
Karabo Rajuili, a director at the international organisation Open Ownership, said criminals are becoming more skilled. Rajuili said shell companies are growing in number and financial crimes are becoming more complex.
Rajuili said an accurate ownership register is important for accountability. The data must also lead to real prosecutions, the director said.
The register holds personal data about the people behind company structures, Rajuili said. Legal safeguards are in place, Rajuili said, so that the data is not misused and owners’ privacy rights are protected.
The National Treasury will table the General Laws Amendment Bill before Parliament. Among other changes, the bill will allow the CIPC to issue administrative fines directly.
The bill will also let the CIPC deregister companies that fail to file beneficial ownership information for two years in a row.
Source: this article is based on reporting by SABC Business. Image: SABC Business. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice Business desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Anelisa Nkuna covers business and money news for Tzaneen Voice. Anelisa reports on the rand, fuel prices, interest rates, jobs, Eskom, Transnet, farming and company results. The aim is simple: explain what the numbers mean for household budgets, small businesses and workers in South Africa.