Mungo Soggot and Marion Edmunds
ALLAN BOESAK is being bankrolled by a group of Cape businessmen, including Crispin Sonn, son of South Africa’s ambassador to the United States.
Sonn, who runs a computer company which won a lucrative R1-million government contract last year, told the Mail & Guardian he was one of several Cape businessmen supporting the former African National Congress Western Cape chair.
Boesak goes on trial in August on 21 charges of fraud and theft of more than R1- million, involving foreign donor money administered by the Foundation for Peace and Justice, where Boesak was a director.
Sonn said Boesak had played a “very prominent political role. It would be crazy to dump him at a time when he needs assistance.”
Other businessmen in the province were also “coming to the fore”, but he said some of them would want to keep their assistance to Boesak under wraps for “business considerations”.
Meanwhile, as the controversy surrounding Boesak continued – with allegations that the Legal Aid Board broke the rules in paying for his defence team – questions are being raised about the possible involvement of other senior ANC members in what has been described as “struggle bookkeeping”.
Members of the Western Cape legal fraternity and several ANC politicians suggested that a probe into the foundation could expose dubious “struggle bookkeeping” in other institutions associated with the ANC in the run up to the elections.
One such institution is the Community Law Centre at the University of the Western Cape, which employed leading lights in the ANC, including Justice Minister Dullah Omar, Public Service Minister Zola Skweyiya, Deputy Arts and Culture Minister Brigitte Mabandla, and National Council of Provinces deputy chairman Bulelani Ngcuka.
The centre received funding from the foundation possibly running into millions of rand and questions remain about how much of the cash was spent.
The centre’s director, Nico Steytler, said the audited books had always been in order. He added that after Omar had left the centre, it had emerged Omar himself had been underpaid.
Legal Aid Board officials this week dismissed allegations that they had broken the rules by giving Boesak generous funding for his legal battle.
Lawyers said it was rare for the board to allow a recipient facing criminal charges to select his own lawyers – Pretoria-based Stegmans – and to secure backing for senior counsel. The top rate legal aid pays advocates is R1 800, whereas a senior counsel can charge at least R6 000 a day. The board is paying for an “experienced junior counsel” and is considering paying for another senior counsel.
It is also unusual for the board to pay for lawyers from out of town. In Boesak’s case, the board is flying the Stegmans squad and their advocates down to Cape Town for the trial.
Senior legal aid official Peter Brits, who dealt with Boesak’s application, said the board had the discretion to bend the out- of-town rule. Stegmans had represented Boesak before, he added.
Omar said he had not interfered with the board’s decision to help Boesak “at all. I have no reason to suspect that it broke the rules.”
Omar, who has been criticised for the glowing support he has given his predecessor, said he did not regret the way he had handled the matter.
Boesak had operated under “special conditions in a period of repression. The normal rules of doing things like keeping proper records were luxuries that could not be afforded.”
He added that he had never suggested that the state’s prosecuting team should have consulted him, prior to pursuing Boesak.
Omar said a conviction would not damage the ANC in the province, as the party had never supported fraud.