wfn.org | Boesak Trial Delayed as His Bookkeeper

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

8-October-1997 
97389 
 
    Boesak Trial Delayed as His Bookkeeper 
    Decides to Plead Guilty 
 
    by Noel Bruyns 
    Ecumenical News International 
 
EAST LONDON, South Africa--The fraud trial of former leading clergyman and 
anti-apartheid campaigner Allan Boesak has been postponed. 
 
    Boesak is former president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches 
and has preached at numerous events of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 
including the 1984 General Assembly and the 1988 dedication of the 
Presbyterian Center in Louisville. 
 
    The trial, which was due to take place in the High Court in Cape Town 
next month, has been postponed until Feb. 20 following a decision by one of 
Boesak's former employees to plead guilty to some charges related to those 
against Boesak. 
 
    The trial has been postponed several times since Boesak and Freddie 
Steenkamp first appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court on March 17. 
At the time of the alleged offenses, Boesak was head of the now defunct 
Foundation for Peace and Justice (FPJ) and Steenkamp was his bookkeeper. 
 
    The two men face 20 charges of theft and 12 of fraud. The charges 
follow allegations that they misappropriated donor funds from DanChurchAid, 
the Swedish International Development Agency and the Church of Norway that 
had been channeled through the FPJ for victims of apartheid in the 1980s. 
 
    At a brief court appearance on Sept. 23, the court granted a request 
that the case against Boesak be separated from that of Steenkamp. State 
prosecutor J.C. Gerber told the court that Steenkamp intended to plead 
guilty to some of the charges and their cases would therefore have to be 
separated. Boesak has consistently denied all charges against him. 
 
    According to the indictment read out in court in April, the two men 
misappropriated 9 million Rand (U.S. $2,025,000). The indictment claims 
that they fraudulently spent R5.7 million of FPJ funds and stole a further 
R3.3 million. 
 
    Boesak is alleged to have personally enriched himself by R1.12 million. 
 
    He and Steenkamp are also accused of involvement in financial 
irregularities with money donated by the U.S.-based Coca-Cola Foundation 
and by singer Paul Simon. 
 
    Boesak, one of the most prominent clergymen in the struggle against 
apartheid, gave up the ministry for a political career.  After the former 
apartheid regime unbanded the African National Congress (ANC), Boesak 
became ANC leader in the Western Cape province, based in Cape Town. He was 
later appointed to be South Africa's  ambassador to the United Nations in 
Geneva, but when the fraud allegations made headlines he withdrew from the 
appointment. 

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