Officials in the Republic of South Africa say they are investigating allegations by Libyan officials that ex-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his family kept an asset worth $1 billion in South Africa.
The current Libyan officials reportedly called for help in repatriating diamonds, gold and cash from the Republic of South Africa to Libya.
Libyan officials alleged that the said assets were being held by four different banks and security companies in South Africa, according to their secret investigations.
The Sunday Times newspaper in South Africa quoted a spokesman for South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan as saying that Libyan officials have approached them about some properties of Gaddafi in South Africa.
“There was a group that approached Treasury claiming to represent the Libyan government and we are in the process of verifying their claims about assets that are in South Africa,” Mr. Gordhan told the Sunday News Times Paper.
The Newspaper further published the extracts word to word letter from the Libyan justice and finance ministers to their South African counterparts asking for help finding the assets linked to Gaddafi which they considered might have been illegally possessed, obtained, looted, deposited or hidden in the country.
It was rumored also that the Libyan investigators met with President Jacob Zuma to discuss locating and returning the alleged assets back to Libya but this was not confirmed by any government official.
One Libyan embassy official Salah Marghani told reporters that officials had been appointed by the South African government to investigate and secure the asset in Africa on behalf of the people of Libya.
The current Libyan officials estimate suggests that Gaddafi’s total foreign assets could be worth around $80bn and over.
Libyan officials say assets belonging to him or his family are state-owned property and should be returned to the Libyan people from wherever it is hidden.
Muammar Gaddafi was captured and killed by rebels with the assistance of NATO bombardment as he tried to flee his birthplace of Sirte during Libya’s political uprising in October 2011.
Issaka Adams / NationalTurk Africa News
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