Allan Boesak
Encyclopedia
Reverend Allan Aubrey Boesak (born 23 February 1945 in Kakamas, Northern Cape
) is a South Africa
n Dutch Reformed Church
cleric and politician
and anti-apartheid activist. He was sentenced to prison for fraud
in 1999 but was subsequently exonerated, granted an official pardon, and reinstated as a cleric in late 2004.
, 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
(UDF) from 1983 to 1991. In 1991, Boesak was elected 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 challenged the South African leadership to remember why they joined all races to create a non-racial South Africa. In 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."
Also in 2008, while serving as the Moderator of the Cape Synod of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa
, Boesak, to the shock of many senior church leaders, announced that he would resign all of his positions within the church because of the church's discriminatory position on homosexuality and gay and lesbian persons. Boesak invoked the anti-apartheid 1986 Belhar Declaration, which lambasts all forms of discrimination, to say that the church should welcome gays and lesbians and begin to perform gay marriage ceremonies and appoint gay clergy. Dr. Boesak had originally come out in favour of same-sex marriage
in 2004, a year before South Africa's Constitutional Court
ruled that the denial of marriage rights to gay people was discriminatory and violated the country's constitution.
In December 2008 he left the ANC to join the Congress of the People party. In reaction, the ANC leaked a memorandum written by Boesak, detailing how Boesak discussed different roles he could play to help the organisation. His preferred choice was the post of South African ambassador to the United Nations.
The same month saw Boesak voicing his views on the Zimbabwe
crisis, calling on citizens of the stricken country to rise up in opposition to President Robert Mugabe
and his authoritarian ruling party. He also censured Mbeki for failing in his role as the Southern African Development Community
's official mediator to heed the churches' call for a peace-keeping force.
He also called for a revaluation of affirmative action, describing as "totally inexcusable" its effectuation in the Western Cape
.
400,000 of funds received from the Danish
humanitarian organisation 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 and found guilty of fraud on 24 March 1999. He was jailed in 2000 and 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.
Boesak has written a book on his 30 years as an activist – Running with Horses: Reflections of an Accidental Politician – which was published in late March 2009. Boesak said that in his book he will explain why the banning of UDF affiliates meant the money could not be accounted for. Boesak declined to testify in his trial in 1999. He maintains that keeping this silence was one of the main reasons for his conviction.
Northern Cape
The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of an international park shared with Botswana...
) is a South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n Dutch Reformed Church
Dutch Reformed Church
The Dutch Reformed Church was a Reformed Christian denomination in the Netherlands. It existed from the 1570s to 2004, the year it merged with the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands to form the Protestant Church in the...
cleric and politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
and anti-apartheid activist. He was sentenced to prison for fraud
Fraud
In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...
in 1999 but was subsequently exonerated, granted an official pardon, and reinstated as a cleric in late 2004.
Theologian, cleric and activist
Boesak first became known as a liberation theologianLiberation theology
Liberation theology is a Christian movement in political theology which interprets the teachings of Jesus Christ in terms of a liberation from unjust economic, political, or social conditions...
, 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
The Shamen
The Shamen were an experimental electronic music band, from 1985–1999, initially formed in Aberdeen, Scotland, as a psychedelic-influenced indie rock act. The founding members are Colin Angus , Derek McKenzie and Keith McKenzie...
on their album En Tact
En Tact
En-Tact was an album by The Shamen, released in 1990. It was the first Shamen album to feature Mr C, and the last to feature Will Sinnott...
.
Boesak was elected as president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches
World Alliance of Reformed Churches
The World Alliance of Reformed Churches is a fellowship of more than 200 churches with roots in the 16th-century Reformation, and particularly in the theology of John Calvin...
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
National Party (South Africa)
The National Party is a former political party in South Africa. Founded in 1914, it was the governing party of the country from 4 June 1948 until 9 May 1994. Members of the National Party were sometimes known as Nationalists or Nats. Its policies included apartheid, the establishment of a...
's policies and played a major anti-apartheid activist role as a patron of the United Democratic Front
United Democratic Front (South Africa)
The United Democratic Front was one of the most important anti-apartheid organisations of the 1980s. The non-racial coalition of about 400 civic, church, students', workers' and other organisations was formed in 1983, initially to fight the just-introduced idea of the Tricameral Parliament The...
(UDF) from 1983 to 1991. In 1991, Boesak was elected chairman of the Western Cape region of the African National Congress
African National Congress
The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
(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 challenged the South African leadership to remember why they joined all races to create a non-racial South Africa. In the annual Ashley Kriel
Ashley Kriel
Ashley Kriel, a 20-year old South African activist, was killed by police in Cape Town on 9 July 1987 for his role in advocating anti-apartheid actions...
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."
Also in 2008, while serving as the Moderator of the Cape Synod of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa
Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa
The Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa was formed by the union of the black and coloured Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk mission churches.-Main markers in the URCSA'S history:...
, Boesak, to the shock of many senior church leaders, announced that he would resign all of his positions within the church because of the church's discriminatory position on homosexuality and gay and lesbian persons. Boesak invoked the anti-apartheid 1986 Belhar Declaration, which lambasts all forms of discrimination, to say that the church should welcome gays and lesbians and begin to perform gay marriage ceremonies and appoint gay clergy. Dr. Boesak had originally come out in favour of same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage in South Africa
Same-sex marriage has been legal in South Africa since 30 November 2006, when the Civil Union Act, 2006 came into force, having been passed by Parliament earlier that month. A ruling by the Constitutional Court on 1 December 2005 had given Parliament one year to make same-sex marriage legal...
in 2004, a year before South Africa's Constitutional Court
Constitutional Court of South Africa
The Constitutional Court of South Africa was established in 1994 by South Africa's first democratic constitution: the Interim Constitution of 1993. In terms of the 1996 Constitution the Constitutional Court established in 1994 continues to hold office. The court began its first sessions in February...
ruled that the denial of marriage rights to gay people was discriminatory and violated the country's constitution.
In December 2008 he left the ANC to join the Congress of the People party. In reaction, the ANC leaked a memorandum written by Boesak, detailing how Boesak discussed different roles he could play to help the organisation. His preferred choice was the post of South African ambassador to the United Nations.
The same month saw Boesak voicing his views on the Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
crisis, calling on citizens of the stricken country to rise up in opposition to President Robert Mugabe
Robert Mugabe
Robert Gabriel Mugabe is the President of Zimbabwe. As one of the leaders of the liberation movement against white-minority rule, he was elected into power in 1980...
and his authoritarian ruling party. He also censured Mbeki for failing in his role as the Southern African Development Community
Southern African Development Community
The Southern African Development Community is an inter-governmental organization headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana. Its goal is to further socio-economic cooperation and integration as well as political and security cooperation among 15 southern African states...
's official mediator to heed the churches' call for a peace-keeping force.
He also called for a revaluation of affirmative action, describing as "totally inexcusable" its effectuation in the Western Cape
Western Cape
The Western Cape is a province in the south west of South Africa. The capital is Cape Town. Prior to 1994, the region that now forms the Western Cape was part of the much larger Cape Province...
.
Controversies
In the late 1990s Boesak, at the time chairman of the Western Cape branch of the ANC, was accused of misappropriating over RZAR
ZAR may refer to:* South African rand, ISO 4217 currency code* South African Republic, * Zairean Airlines, Democratic Republic of the Congo ICAO code...
400,000 of funds received from the Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
humanitarian organisation Danchurch Aid, the Coca Cola Foundation and the singer Paul Simon
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...
. 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
South African Police Service
The South African Police Service is the national police force of the Republic of South Africa. Its 1116 police stations in South Africa are divided according to the provincial borders, and a Provincial Commissioner is appointed in each province...
investigations, Boesak was charged and found guilty of fraud on 24 March 1999. He was jailed in 2000 and released in 2001, having served just over one year of his three year sentence.
Although Boesak applied for a presidential
President of South Africa
The President of the Republic of South Africa is the head of state and head of government under South Africa's Constitution. From 1961 to 1994, the head of state was called the State President....
pardon from Thabo Mbeki
Thabo Mbeki
Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki is a South African politician who served two terms as the second post-apartheid President of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008. He is also the brother of Moeletsi 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
Criminal record
A criminal record is a record of a person's criminal history, generally used by potential employers, lenders etc. to assess his or her trustworthiness. The information included in a criminal record varies between countries and even between jurisdictions within a country...
would be expunged.
Boesak has written a book on his 30 years as an activist – Running with Horses: Reflections of an Accidental Politician – which was published in late March 2009. Boesak said that in his book he will explain why the banning of UDF affiliates meant the money could not be accounted for. Boesak declined to testify in his trial in 1999. He maintains that keeping this silence was one of the main reasons for his conviction.
Politics
Boesak joined the new Congress of the People party in December 2008, and was selected in February 2009 as the party's premier candidate for the Western Cape in the 2009 Provincial and National Elections. In November 2009, Boesak resigned from Congress of the People.Publications
- 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.
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