omissions that national legislators consider to be punishable by that law. laws are therefore designed to protect us and ensure our safety in all aspects : physical, financial, psychological and social. the extent to which money is laundered globally is estimated to be between $ 500 billion and $ 1 trillion. the wide range of the estimate highlights the difficulties associated with obtaining accurate data on this problem. this is the case because only a limited number of countries have set up anti money laundering regimes that are up and running and therefore able to provide appropriate statistics. the problem of lack of accurate money laundering statistics in africa is compounded where the setting - up of anti - money laundering regimes is only gaining momentum now. it will take some time for africa to build up accurate statistics on money laundering as this would have to be sourced from actual cases investigated and finalized. further, a good understanding of the national money laundering activities requires concerted national research and studies of the money laundering typologies commonly practiced in each country. in this regard, it is worth mentioning that the institute for security studies in south africa has initiated a number of researches and studies aimed at documenting the extent of money laundering in africa, especially southern africa. however, the sufficiency and integrity of the statistics provided by the institute is only as good as the national sources supplying the information. it is therefore imperative that national efforts to determine the extent of money laundering must be improved as these statistics are important for convincing the legislative and political processes on the need for legislative changes necessary for effective combating of money laundering. the anti money laundering laws protect the rights of individuals by providing for the articulation of what crime is, the acts of crime and the punishment thereof. legislators, in consultation with their constituents through legislation on crime, lay the foundation for basic individual human rights and the attainment of inner individual self fulfillment. crime and criminal acts work towards eroding these very basic individual rights. despite the enactment of laws designed to curb crime and acts of crime, these evils still take place and are in most cases on the increase. the law enforcement agencies the world over are overwhelmed by the sheer size and sophistication that criminals are now employing to perpetrate their illegal deeds. the efforts on crime prevention are now compounded by globalization that has created what one may say is a global economy in which organized crime groups and individuals can and do generate huge sums of money by drug trafficking, financial crime, corruption, intellectual property crime, terrorism

tom k alweendo : crime and money laundering - the challenges address by mr tom k alweendo, governor of the bank of namibia, at the african banking congress, johannesburg, 8 - 10 march 2005. * * * ladies and gentlemen, i would like to thank the organizers of this event for inviting me to give an address on the topic of crime and money laundering. the choice of this topic is so appropriate because of the challenges money laundering poses to the banking sector in africa. financial crime and money laundering is increasingly becoming a global phenomenon and this is not only a threat to the global banking sector, but it has the potential to become a threat to the civil and political spheres. money laundering is conventionally defined as any process that is carried out to disguise or conceal the nature or source of or entitlement to money or property from criminal activities. although countries have come up with different money laundering definitions in their statutes, it is important that any useful definition should recognize that crime of any nature is an act against society and as such, to launder any proceeds from unlawful activity or the contravention of any law followed by laundering should be encompassed in the definition. a new dimension to what constitutes money laundering is with respect to terrorism, whereby legitimate or clean money is committed to the financing of unlawful activity. the definition of money laundering that encompasses any unlawful activity would be well inclusive and would provide law enforcement with a wider legal arm. the combating of financing of terrorism, which is an unlawful act, is in most jurisdictions provided for in separate legislations but linked to the mainstream national anti money laundering laws, especially in respect of detection. the anti money laundering legislations that are being promulgated by most jurisdictions have and are criminalizing the act of money laundering as defined above. this in essence means that these laws make the act of money laundering a criminal offence and that to launder money derived from criminal acts constitutes committing a crime punishable by law. in addition, the anti money laundering laws places a requirement for reporting institutions to report suspicious transactions, failure of which constitutes an offence by both the institution and / or officers of that institution. the meirium - webster dictionary describes crime as an “ act or the commission of an act that is forbidden or the omission of a duty that is commanded by a public law and that makes the offender liable to punishment by that law ”. this definition pre - supposes the existence of a public law that sets out the details of the acts or