Allan Boesak

Reverend Allan Aubrey Boesak (23 February 1945 -) is a South African Dutch Reformed Church cleric and was a politician and anti-apartheid activist. He was sentenced to prison for fraud in 1999 but was re-instated as a cleric in late 2004.

Theologian, cleric and activist

Boesak first became known as a liberation theologian, starting with the publication of his doctoral work ("Farewell to Innocence", 1976). For the next decade or so, he continued to write well-received books and collections of essays, sermons, and so on. An anti-apartheid speech of his was sampled by British electronica group The Shamen on their album "En Tact".

Boesak was elected as president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches in 1982, a position he held until 1991.

He rose to prominence during the 1980s as an outspoken critic and opponent of the National Party's policies and played a major anti-apartheid activist role as a patron of the United Democratic Front from 1983 to 1991.

In 1991, Boesak was elected as chairman of the Western Cape region of the African National Congress (ANC).

Boesak resigned from the Dutch Reformed Church in 1990 after details of an extramarital affair with television presenter Elna Botha emerged; they later married.

In 2008, Boesak publicly challenge South African leadership to remember why they joined all races to create a non-racial South Africa. Using the annual Ashley Kriel Memorial Youth Lecture, Boesak suggested that the ANC was well down the slippery slope of ethnicity preferences and "had brought back the hated system of racial categorization." [http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/Politics/0,,2-7-12_2367414,00.html] Full text of the speech is here: [http://www.africafiles.org/printableversion.asp?id=18643] .

Controversies

In the late 1990s Boesak, at the time still chairman of the Western Cape branch of the ANC, was accused of misappropriating R 250,000 of funds received from the Danish investment group Danchurch Aid, the Coca Cola Foundation and the singer Paul Simon. Meant for development projects of Boesak's Foundation for Peace and Justice within the province, the funds were apparently transferred to a private trust fund by Boesak. After police investigations, Boesak was charged with and found guilty of fraud on 24 March 1999. He was jailed in 2000 but was released in 2001, having served just over one year of his three year sentence.

Although Boesak applied for a presidential pardon from Thabo Mbeki after his release it was not granted, as the government felt that he had not admitted that he had committed an offense. However, on 15 January 2005, it was announced that he had received a presidential pardon and that his criminal record would be expunged.

External links

*http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/people/bios/boesak-a.htm
*http://www.news24.com/News24/AnanziArticle/0,,2-7-1442_1626556,00.html
*http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_1632229,00.html

Literature

*Boesak, A A 1976. "Farewell to Innocence: A Socio-Ethical Study on Black Theology and Black Power." Maryknoll: Orbis Books. ISBN 0-88344-130-6.
*Boesak, A A 1982. "The Finger of God: Sermons on Faith and Socio-Political Responsibility." Maryknoll: Orbis. ISBN 0-88344-135-7.
*Boesak, A A 1984. "Black and Reformed: Apartheid, Liberation, and the Calvinist Tradition." Maryknoll: Orbis Books. ISBN 0-88344-148-9.
*Boesak, A A & C Villa-Vicencio (eds) 1986. "When Prayer Makes News." Philadelphia: Westminster Press. ISBN 0-664-24035-6 [= "A Call for an End to Unjust Rule." Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press. ISBN 0-7152-0594-3]
*Boesak, A A 1987. "Comfort and Protest: Reflections on the Apocalypse of John of Patmos." Philadelphia: Westminster Press. ISBN 0-664-24602-8.
*Boesak, A A 1987. "If This Is Treason, I Am Guilty." Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. ISBN 0-8028-0251-6.