The Foundation for=20 Peace and Justice witheld=20 Danish funding for a Karoo=20 preschool association, reports=20 Justin Pearce in Cape Town
AS the investigation into the allegations of misuse of=20 funding by Dr Allan Boesak’s Foundation for Peace and=20 Justice draws to a close, the Weekly Mail & Guardian=20 has obtained further evidence of foreign donor money=20 which never reached the project for which it was=20
Karoo Association for Preschool Education (Kavo)=20 representative Peter du Preez told said Kavo had=20 received a total of R60 000 from the FPJ during 1992=20 and 1993, and no money at all in 1994.
According to documents obtained from the Danish=20 Department of Foreign Affairs, the department allocated=20 535 720 Danish kroner (R238 097) to the FPJ in February=20 1993, with the intention that this money be passed on=20 to Kavo. In September 1993, the department allocated a=20 futher 402 000 kroner (R201 000) to cover Kavo’s 1994=20 budget. In both cases the money was channelled via the=20 Danish funding organisation DanChurchAid, which applied=20 to Foreign Affairs on behalf of Kavo and the FPJ.
Du Preez said repeated enquiries to the FPJ concerning=20 the money during the course of 1994 proved fruitless.=20 In October, Kavo received a fax from Boesak’s personal=20 assistant, Norman Michaels, saying that the FPJ had not=20 received the money from Denmark, and suggesting that=20 this might be because the Danes were revising their=20 priorities for funding projects in South Africa.
Du Preez said that because the funds had not arrived,=20 Kavo had had to suspend its plans to build two day-care=20 centres for the children of farm labourers in the=20 region of Beaufort West. Consequently, some 50 children=20 were making do with a makeshift creche in a scrapyard=20 in Beaufort West.
“We value what Boesak did in the past, but this is=20 unforgiveable,” Du Preez said. “If we had the money we=20 could go so far.”
Two other development projects in the Karoo also failed=20 to receive money obtained from Denmark by the FPJ.=20 Caravan Community Projects in Carnarvon reports having=20
R35 000 from the FPJ between 1992 and 1994, yet the=20 documents from the Danish Department of Foreign Affairs=20 indicate that the equivalent of R53 000 was allocated=20 to the project for 1992 alone. Loxton Community=20 Projects received only R15 000 of the R70 000 allocated=20 by the Danes.
The outcome of the investigation ordered by=20 DanChurchAid into the alleged misuse of funds is=20 expected next week.