wfn.org | Protesting His Innocence, Boesak Begins Jail Term

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Note #5900 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

16-May-2000
00195

	Protesting His Innocence, Boesak Begins Jail Term

	Anti-apartheid leader given six years for theft and fraud 

	by Noel Bruyns
	Ecumenical News International

EAST LONDON, South Africa -- Former anti-apartheid activist Allan Boesak
reported to a Cape Town prison May 15 to start a three-year sentence for
theft and fraud.

	The former clergyman -- who in the 1980s was widely respected by churches
and ecumenical organizations world-wide that poured money into his
anti-apartheid fund -- will live in a communal cell, with no special
privileges, according to the prison authorities.

	Boesak is widely known among U.S. Presbyterians, having served as the
General Assembly preacher in 1984.  He preached at the dedication services
for the Presbyterian Center in Louisville in October 1988.

	On May 12, the Supreme Court of Appeal sentenced 53-year-old Boesak to an
effective three years in prison for financial irregularities while he was
director of the now-defunct Foundation for Peace and Justice (FPJ) which had
been set up to finance anti-apartheid activities and help victims of South
Africa's racist policies in the 1980s.

	Ironically Boesak will serve time in the same prison to which he led
protest marches in the early 1980s demanding the release of a fellow
opponent of apartheid, Nelson Mandela.

	Last year the High Court in Cape Town imposed a six-year prison term on
Boesak.  The May 12 appeal ruling halved that sentence.

	Three Appeal Court judges dismissed Boesak's appeal against two
convictions.  One conviction was for the theft of 259,161 rand from a
donation of 682,161 rand to the Children's Trust set up by U.S. pop star
Paul Simon to help child victims of apartheid.  Boesak had defrauded the
trustees by failing to tell them the full amount of Simon's donation. The
second conviction was for a theft from the accounts of the FPJ to pay
personal expenses.

	However, they upheld Boesak's appeal against his conviction for stealing
762,521 rand from a Swedish donation intended for the production of
educational video and audio cassettes on democracy.

	Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Nobel
Peace laureate and a colleague of Boesak in the anti-apartheid struggle,
expressed, in a May 13 statement his "deep distress" at the prospect of the
former pastor and moderator of the Dutch Reformed Mission Church serving a
prison sentence.

	"I am very deeply distressed at the prospect of Allan having to serve a
gaol sentence. We give thanks for his tremendous contribution to the
struggle for democracy," Tutu said.

	The sentiment was echoed by the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa,
which on May 12 acknowledged the church work of the disgraced cleric.  The
Dutch Reformed Mission Church, in which Boesak was once a leading figure, is
today part of the Uniting Reformed Church of Southern Africa.

	DanChurchAid, which was instrumental in getting fraud investigations opened
against Boesak six years ago, welcomed the court ruling.  "It is important
for the whole NGO [non-governmental organization] community that it is so
clearly stated that the misuse of funding is not acceptable," said Christian
Balslev-Olesen, secretary-general of DanChurchAid.

	DanChurchAid was one of the funders of the FPJ, and Balslev-Olesen
testified against Boesak during his high court trial.

	Speaking in Geneva, Paraic Reamonn, press officer of the World Alliance of
Reformed Churches, said, "Obviously we have no comment on the verdict of the
court.  At this difficult time for Allan Boesak, however, we would like to
pay tribute to his role in the struggle against apartheid and his
contribution as president of the alliance from 1982 to 1990. Whatever may
have happened since, we will always be grateful to him for that."

	Boesak has had such a high profile in South Africa that even political
parties commented on the closure of the case.  The ruling party, the African
National Congress (ANC), said that it
was "hurt" by the sentencing of a hero of the freedom struggle.  However, it
accepted the decision of an institution it respected.

	The Inkatha Freedom Party, a partner in the government, said the outcome of
the appeal should prove to foreign donors that corruption would not be
tolerated in South Africa and that no one was above the law.

	However, Boesak claimed he was the victim of a gross miscarriage of
justice.  "I will be entering prison as an innocent man," he said at a media
conference in Cape Town on his last day of freedom.  "I am not guilty as
charged, and will therefore continue to explore any and all avenues in
pursuit of final justice.  In this regard we believe we have firm reason to
take the matter to the Constitutional Court."

	FPJ bookkeeper Freddie Steenkamp was convicted and given a six-year
sentence in a separate trial in 1998.

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