South Africa’s finance minister Pravin Gordhan on Thursday said he had agreed with Libyan government to send back Libyan funds that were hidden in the country.

This was decided after Gordhan and a Libyan delegation, led by Usam al Abid, the minister in the Office of Libyan Prime Minister, met last week Tuesday.

It is believed that the funds could amount to almost R10 billion. But there is no official statement confirming this figure.

Apparently, the Libya Investment Authority, the Libya Africa Investment Portfolio and the Libya Africa Investment Company had placed these funds in South Africa.

The money was closely monitored by the slain Muammar Gaddafi’s government. Gordhan said the handover of this money to Libya will be handled in terms of United Nations (UN) protocols.

“The decision was informed by the fact that the Government of Libya established a single body in 2012 to coordinate the repatriation of assets to Libya,” Gordhan said in a statement.

“This body cooperates with the Committee formed in terms of the UN Security Council Resolution 1970 (2011) and the Panel of Experts which coordinates the orderly and transparent repatriation to Libya of assets frozen in various countries.”

Libyan sleuths had contacted the South African finance department in possession of proof that the assets, including diamond and gold, had been held by four South African banks and two security companies.

In a letter sent to South African authorities at the time, Libyan investigators said large stashes of cash from Libya had been unearthed in South Africa and its neighbouring states.

South Africa was among the countries that were against Nato’s military attacks in Libya during the unrest which led to Gaddafi’s death in 2011.

Gaddafi was arrested and murdered in October 2011. He was attempting to leave   Sirte, which was said to be his home town.

The state funds that were uncovered in South Africa allegedly came from Gaddafi’s former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi. He is said to be languishing in a Libyan jail.

Some of the cash was allegedly handled and belonged to Gaddafi’s former chief of staff Bashir Saleh.

Saleh was head of Libya’s  sovereign wealth fund, which was set up in 2006 to manage the North African country’s oil dollars. The fund has assets of around $60 billion, mixed between shares, bonds, other financial products and holdings in subsidiaries.

In February, Libya replaced the head of the sovereign wealth fund, Mohsen Derregia, after the government deemed his performance unsatisfactory.