Mungo Soggot
A new mystery backer has leapt to the support of Allan Boesak and hired President Nelson Mandelas family lawyers to brief senior counsel for the alleged fraudster.
Ismail Ayob, the senior partner at Ismail Ayob and Partners and longtime attorney for the Mandela family, says his firm is acting for a client from the United States whose name we are not authorised to disclose.
Ayob says his client is extremely concerned about Boesak obtaining the best possible defence. Our client was of the view that an adverse verdict by a court would impact adversely upon our client. Ayob will be working with Pretoria law firm Stegmanns, which is already representing Boesak.
He rules out the possibility he is acting for South Africas ambassador to the United States, Franklin Sonn, who admitted last month to drumming up financial support for Boesaks defence.
This latest development in the saga over Boesaks representation at his R1,1-million fraud trial in Cape Town follows the Legal Aid Boards announcement last month it would withdraw all Boesaks funding.
The board which had taken the controversial step of agreeing to pay senior counsel and attorneys not based in the city where the trial is taking place refused to be joint funders after it emerged Sonn was bolstering Boesaks defence budget.
Boesak took the board to court and it subsequently agreed to review its decision. In the meantime it continued funding his defence apart from senior counsel.
The board said this week it could still pull the plug on Boesak. Senior official Peter Brits says they will meet on October 1 to discuss whether to continue funding Boesak if his team persists in its attitude of obtaining outside funding.
Boesaks trial was postponed in the Cape High Court this week until February 20, after Judge Gerald Friedman ruled that Boesak and his co-accused, Freddie Steenkamp, should be tried separately.
Ayob is briefing Mike Maritz, SC, who was originally lined up by Stegmanns to represent Boesak. Maritz represented former defence minister Magnus Malan last year.
The Baptist Seminary in Berkeley, California, for which Boesak worked, said last month that it was not backing Boesak. The Orinda Presbyterian Church, which also employed Boesak, could not be reached this week.