Appointment of Adv Pieter Smit as the acting FIC Director

4 September 2023

The Minister of Finance, Mr Enoch Godongwana (MP), has in terms of section 8 of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, appointed Adv Pieter Smit as Acting Director of the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC).

Adv Smit’s appointment is for a period of six months, from 1 September 2023 to 29 February 2024, or until a new Director is appointed and assumes office, whichever occurs first. The process to appoint a new Director is currently underway.

Adv Smit joined the FIC in 2004 in the position of Executive Manager: Legal and Policy, a position which he occupies to date. He was part of the team that was responsible for the establishment of the FIC. Adv Smit has been responsible for the development of proposals to amend the FIC Act and has on some occasions led the processes for the passage of the FIC Amendment Bills through Parliament., Adv Smit, in his position at the FIC, closely monitors money laundering and terror financing risk typologies, keeps abreast of international policy developments relating to Anti-Money Laundering and the Combating of the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT), and leads the process of formulating domestic AML/CFT policies in the FIC.

Adv Smit has been a long-standing member of the South African Delegation to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group.

Adv Smit holds a Baccalaureus Iuris degree from the University of Pretoria, a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Pretoria, and Master of Laws degree from the Rand Afrikaans University. Adv Smit was admitted as an Advocate of the High Court of South Africa in 1990.

The Minister would also like to thank Adv Xolisile Khanyile for her service as the Director of the FIC from January 2018 to August 2023 and wishes her well in her future endeavours.

Issued by Ministry of Finance, 4 September 2023