"Some analysts have suggested that jihadist financing flourished because South African authorities grew complacent at the lack of visible Islamist activity.

'I don't think South Africa realised it. It was the Americans who said, 'something not okay is going on in your country,"' Hans-Jakob Schindler, director of the Counter-Extremism Project think-tank, told AFP.

'The entire government is now put to task,' he said."