Anti-apartheid activist convicted of theft, fraud
By Paula R. Kincaid, The Layman Online, March 25, 1999
Allan Boesak, a leading anti-apartheid activist in South Africa, was convicted on March 17, 1999 of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars donated to his Foundation for Peace and Justice. He was sentenced to six years in prison on March 23.
The money had been raised to help needy children and to educate black voters before South Africa’s first all-race election in 1994.
Boesak was invited by Presbyterian Church (USA) officials to be the 1988 dedication service preacher at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, the daily preacher at the 1984 General Assembly in Phoenix, and the 1996-97 “theologian in residence” at the PCUSA’s Stony Point Conference Center.
He was president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, a post he passed on in 1990 to retiring Princeton Seminary Professor Jane Dempsey Douglass after news broke that he was having an extramarital affair. Named South Africa’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, he resigned that post in 1994 when the fraud charges were filed against him.
Guilty on four counts
Judge John Foxcroft of the Cape Town High Court found Boesak, a former Dutch Reformed Mission Church minister who stepped down from his pulpit after admitting to an adulterous relationship, guilty of three counts of theft and one of fraud involving $400,000.
He was originally charged with 32 counts of theft and fraud. Five counts were dismissed and he was acquitted of 23.
In a letter to the judge, Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu said he was “deeply distressed” by the conviction. “His contributions to the country and its people outweigh overwhelmingly the consequences of those actions of which he has been convicted. I cannot see that it is in his [Boesak’s] or society’s interest to sentence him to imprisonment.”
Referring to the letter, Foxcroft acknowledged Boesak’s role in ridding South Africa of the hated system of apartheid. But a lenient sentence would mean “the administration of justice could fall into disrepute.”
Following the sentencing, Foxcroft denied an application for an appeal. Defense lawyer Mike Maritz said he would fight the decision before the appellate court.
The money
Boesak diverted funds raised by singer Paul Simon during his 1988 Graceland tour to help child victims of apartheid. Of the approximately $200,000 Simon gave to the foundation, Boesak gave $128,000 to the charity, keeping the rest for himself.
“The accused wrongfully and unlawfully appropriated money intended for children of South Africa,” said Foxcroft.
Boesak was convicted of stealing about $226,000 donated by a Swedish government aid agency, which was to be used to make voter-education videos. Instead, the money was used to build a radio studio for his second wife, Elna, a former television personality.
He was also convicted of misusing $93,000 to buy houses in the upmarket Cape Town suburbs of Vredehoek and Constantia and of giving $4,200 to his wife.
Boesak did not testify in the trial. He has denied he stole funds but said he had failed to properly supervise the foundation’s staff.
His former bookkeeper, Freddie Steenkamp, is serving a six-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in November 1998 to stealing about $200,000 from the foundation.
During his own trial Steenkamp admitted that he had deliberately falsified foundation accounts after making unauthorized loans to himself. He said Boesak was his “hero and idol” and that when he observed Boesak embezzling donor funds, he felt that he could do so as well.
Steenkamp testified that Boesak made loans to himself and then wrote them off the books. He said that when he saw “the ease with which figures and amounts are manipulated” he decided to make unauthorized loans to himself as well.
Steenkamp withdrew his allegations during Boesak’s trial and apologized to his boss.