Two community projects received only a fraction of aid money handed to Dr Allan Boesak’s foundation, reports Justin Pearce
THE Weekly Mail & Guardian has uncovered two incidents where only a fraction of donor money given to Dr Allan Boesak’s Foundation for Peace and Justice (FPJ) appear to have reached the communities for which they were intended.
Documents in the possession of the WM&G indicate that the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs granted more than half a million rand to the donor organisation DanChurch Aid, on the request of the FPJ for use in projects in Carnarvon in the Karoo, between 1992 and 1994.
Earlier this month representatives of Caravan Community Projects in Carnavon claimed that the organisation had received only R35 000 from the FPJ over a period of two years.
The documents indicate that administration fees of between five and seven percent were granted to the FPJ with some of the donations.
In 1993 the ministry approved an FPJ request, again on behalf of Kavo, for 402 000 Kroner (R201 000).
The FPJ also received R70 000 earmarked for community projects in the Karoo town of Loxton during 1994, of which only R15 000 ever reached the Loxton community.
DanChurch Aid sources have confirmed that the agency’s 1994 annual report, which is still in the process of publication, records a sum of 132 000 Kroner (R70 000) was paid to the FPJ during the course of 1994.
Jan Riegert of Loxton Community Projects told the WM&G that the organisation had submitted a budget for R60 000 to the foundation in 1993. The projects for which the organisation budgeted included a creche, a community vegetable garden and a shop where community members could sell home produce.
Early in 1994 the organisation received a cheque for R15 000 from the FPJ. In December, it received a further cheque for R25 000 which could not be cashed as there was no money in the foundation’s bank account. Riegert said Loxton Community Projects had never received any more money from the FPJ.
Meanwhile, Norman Michaels, former personal assistant to Dr Allan Boesak, has denied that the Rural Ministries and Development Trust received money from the FPJ, as reported in the WM&G last week.
Michaels issued a statement on Wednesday challenging a number of the claims concerning the trust. According to the statement, the trust never had any money. Asked about the trust’s bank account, details of which are in the hands of WM&G, Michaels told the WM&G that the account had been established with donations of R100 from each of the three founding trustees.
When asked about trustee Denzil Potgieter’s claim that he knew nothing about the bank account, Michaels replied that Potgieter was not one of the original trustees, but had been invited to become a trustee at a later stage.
Michaels declined to comment when asked about a cheque from the trust’s Bellville bank account which was used to settle an FPJ debt.
According to the statement, the trust was unconnected with the King’s Hotel project in East London. This was a Crosstimes Trust initiative, for which the FPJ was approached with a request for help.
The trust was established to generate funds for rural development. Michaels says the trust’s representatives wrote to the Danish embassy in 1992 to request funding, after a meeting with the then Danish ambassador to South Africa, Peter Bruckner, who had recommended they approach the embassy. Michaels said, the embassy turned down the initial request but invited the trust to apply again at a later date.
Bruckner could not be reached for comment, though his successor, Alf Jsnsson, said it was unlikely that the embassy would invite requests for funding. All such requests are routinely referred to DanChurch Aid, Jsnsson said.