wfn.org | Embezzlement Case Against Boesak Deepens

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

12-November-1997 
97430 
 
    Embezzlement Case Against Boesak Deepens 
    as Accountant Is Sentenced to Six Years in Prison 
 
    by Noel Bruyns 
    Ecumenical News International 
 
EAST LONDON, South Africa--The bookkeeper of a now defunct nongovernmental 
organization (NGO) set up to help victims of apartheid was sentenced Nov. 4 
to six years in prison for misappropriating funds from Scandinavian church 
donors and others in the early 1990s. 
 
    Freddie Steenkamp, 41, pleaded guilty before the High Court in Cape 
Town to five counts of fraud and one count of stealing 3.7 million rand 
($770,000).  The money had been channeled to the Foundation for Peace and 
Justice (FPJ) by DanChurchAid, Norwegian church charities, the Swedish 
International Development Agency, the Coca-Cola Foundation in Atlanta and 
American singer Paul Simon. 
 
    During his trial last month, Steenkamp implicated FPJ's head, Allan 
Boesak, a former Dutch Reformed Mission Church minister whose court case on 
similar charges will begin in February next year.  Boesak, 52, is a former 
president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and was a charismatic 
provincial leader of the ruling African National Congress. 
 
    In a written statement, Steenkamp told the judge that he deliberately 
falsified accounts to disguise excessive expenses, salaries and staff 
loans. He also admitted taking out an unauthorized loan of his own. 
 
    Steenkamp told the judge that Boesak was also deeply involved in all 
these activities. Among the charges against Boesak is a count of 
personally embezzling 1.1 million rand ($220,000) of donor funds.  Boesak 
has denied all the charges against him. 
 
    Steenkamp told the court last week that Boesak made loans to himself 
which were simply written off.  When the bookkeeper saw "the ease with 
which figures and amounts are manipulated" in the FPJ's accounting, he 
started taking unauthorized loans for himself.  If it was acceptable for 
Boesak, then it was acceptable for him, Steenkamp said. 
 
    Steenkamp said he had skimmed from the FPJ's funds to copy Boesak's 
luxurious lifestyle, good taste in food, wines and restaurants. 
 
    "Boesak was my hero and my idol. I believed that what Boesak was doing 
was right," Steenkamp told the court. 

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