wfn.org | Boesak's Fraud Trial Begins in Cape Town

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9-September-1998 
98291 
 
    Boesak's Fraud Trial Begins in Cape Town 
 
    by Noel Bruyns 
    Ecumenical News International 
 
EAST LONDON, South Africa-The fraud and theft trial of former leading 
cleric and anti-apartheid leader Allan Boesak began in the Cape High Court 
in Cape Town August 24, almost two years after Scandinavian church and aid 
organizations raised concerns over the disappearance of donor funds given 
to the agency of which he was director. 
 
    Boesak, a former president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, 
is well known to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), having preached at the 
1984 General Assembly and the 1988 dedication services for the Presbyterian 
Center in Louisville.  He was also theologian-in-residence at the Stony 
Point Conference Center two years ago. 
 
    Boesak, 52, previously a pastor of the Dutch Reformed Mission Church, 
faces 32 charges - 12 of fraud and 20 of theft - involving 1.1 million Rand 
($172,955 at present exchange rates).  He pleaded not guilty to all 
charges. 
 
    Boesak is accused of using donor money to buy a house in one of Cape 
Town's most prestigious suburbs and to equip a television studio for his 
second wife, Elna. 
 
    The prosecution presented the court with a 58-page indictment detailing 
Boesak's alleged misuse in the 1980s of funding from the Swedish 
International Development Agency (SIDA), DanChurchAid, the Church of 
Norway, the Coca-Cola Foundation and singer Paul Simon.  The money was 
intended for victims of apartheid.  Funding for "upliftment" programs, for 
a children's trust and for voter education before South Africa's first 
democratic, nonracial elections in 1994 were also allegedly used 
fraudulently. 
 
    The prosecution gave the court a list of 167 potential witnesses it 
wants to call, including the former Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, 
Desmond Tutu.  He and many of the other possible witnesses were leaders in 
the anti-apartheid struggle. 
 
    Boesak appeared in court in September last year with Freddie Steenkamp, 
his bookkeeper at the now-defunct Foundation for Peace and Justice (FPJ) of 
which Boesak was director and through which the funding was channeled.  The 
High Court ordered separate trials after Steenkamp pleaded guilty and 
Boesak not guilty.  Steenkamp was subsequently found guilty of five charges 
of fraud and one of theft involving 3.7 million Rand, and sentenced to six 
years in prison. 
 
    The trial is expected to last three months, but it could continue into 
1999.  Boesak, one of the most prominent clergymen in the struggle against 
apartheid, gave up his church ministry in the early 1990s for a political 
career.  After the former apartheid regime unbanned the African National 
Congress (ANC) and other liberation movements in February 1991, Boesak 
became ANC provincial leader in the Western Cape, based in Cape Town.  He 
was later appointed South Africa's ambassador to the United Nations in 
Geneva, but when the fraud allegations made headlines, he withdrew before 
taking up the appointment. 

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