Wrangle over Gaddafi’s cash stockpiles

The South African Government and President Jacob Zuma have been caught in the middle of an international wrangle over as much as R2trn in US dollars as well as hundreds of tons of gold and at least 6m carats of diamonds in assets belonging to Libya. What could be the world’s largest cash pile is stored in palettes at seven heavily guarded warehouses and bunkers in secret locations between Johannesburg and Pretoria. The Sunday Independent reports that the Hawks are investigating a possible violation of exchange controls. The stockpile is separate to other funds, believed to be in excess of R26bn, held legally in four banks in South Africa. Other legal assets include hotels in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Soon after Muammar Gaddafi’s death in October 2011, the new Libyan Government embarked on a large-scale mission to recover legal assets in South Africa, the rest of Africa, the US and Europe. In South Africa, the focus of the Libyans has been on assets brought into the country legally as well as illegally. Last year, the Libyan Government put in place a separate process to identify and repatriate the illegal assets in South Africa. Investigations by the newspaper reveal that the funds were ferried to South Africa in at least 62 flights between Tripoli and South Africa. The crew of the planes were mainly ex-special forces from the apartheid era. The crew are understood to have deposed affidavits clarifying their role in an effort to avoid criminal charges. Most of the assets were taken out of Libya after Zuma got involved in an AU process to persuade Gaddafi to step down after an Arab Spring-like uprising to force him out of office.