ABSTRACT
The African continent in the last decade has experienced sizable economic growth, based primarily on its mining activities and capabilities. However, certain institutions and policymakers contend that the sizable economic growth in the mining sector could have been higher if not for the phenomenon of illicit financial flows (IFFs). The concept of IFFs has been documented and shown to be an activity that greatly undermines the ability of governments to bolster their socio-economic development standing. Therefore, this chapter explores how the concept of IFFs has been addressed in Namibia and South Africa. It is the contention of this chapter that at the generic level both governments have institutions and public policies to administer and oversee tax-related activities in most commercial sectors. However, when it comes to studying and addressing mining-related IFF activities both governments lack specialised and targeted institutional and public policy processes to currently quantify and give the necessary solutions to addressing the growing problem of IFF activities in the mining sector. This chapter’s solution for addressing this developing problem is to encourage mining states in southern Africa to create and fund a single-issue institution to research and provide solutions to the problem of IFFs in mining.
