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Libya asks South Africa to help recover Gaddafi's missing millions
Libyan authorities have reportedly asked South African president Cyril Ramaphosa to help recover millions of dollars Muammar Gaddafi smuggled out of the country and handed to Jacob Zuma before he died.
The small fortune is now said to be in the hands of the King of Swaziland and has become entangled in a domestic South African political drama as Mr Ramaphosa seeks to crack down on the allegations of corruption that marred his predecessor's period in power.
Gaddafi allegedly handed about $23 million to Mr Zuma, then the president of South Africa, for safekeeping shortly before he was overthrown and killed in a Nato-backed uprising in 2011.
Mr Zuma had disagreed with international military intervention in Libya and had offered Gaddafi asylum in South Africa as his regime crumbled. The dictator turned down the offer, but instead asked the South African president to take care of some of his wealth.
"Gaddafi refused to go. He said he will die in his own country. He gave them money and said, 'Please use this if I'm captured and taken to the International Criminal Court, find a good lawyer for me'. He said, 'If I'm killed, please give it to my family'," a source told South Africa's Sunday Times.
Mr Zuma allegedly held the stash of high-denomination US dollar bills for several years in an underground vault at his luxurious home in rural Kwazulu Natal, according to government sources.But he handed it over to King Mswati of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) in February after fearing he would face charges over corruption allegations.
The newspaper reported that the cash is now held by a relative of King Mswati’s who is employed by Eswatini’s central bank.
King Mswati, who has 15 wives and more than 20 children, initially denied he had the Gaddafi money but reportedly admitted to knowing of its whereabouts when he met Mr Ramaphosa for the second time last week..
The $23 million stash is a relatively small part of Gaddafi's missing millions.
Experts appointed by the UN Security Council in 2017 to trace missing Libyan money allegedly found at least $20bn in South Africa
In 2014, South Africa’s Sunday Independent claimed that billions of dollars of Gaddafi’s money was held in South Africa and that there were fears that several companies which controlled it were linked to Muslim fundamentalist groups.
Mr Ramaphosa and Mr Zuma declined to comment.