Getting off the grey list might be a big sign that the government is getting its act together, but will it continue to improve? Meanwhile, not everyone in the financial world is celebrating this 'victory'.

There are times when we do show that, as South Africans, we are able to move quite quickly when the pressure is on. We can still mess it up, but sometimes we show we can pull together and do things.

The decision by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to remove us from its grey list obviously comes after a huge amount of work and coordination involving several players.

Key to all of this was that we are in a situation where our government ministries, agencies, institutions and regulators were able to work together. Crucially, along with the private sector.

But we should not forget why we were able to do this. There was really no political controversy that divided us. Pretty much all of our political formations wanted us off the grey list. That, and the relatively small number of people in our elite who were involved in this, obviously made it much easier to do.

I do think, though, that there is...