OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday, 10.00PM.
ALLAN Boesak’s former accountant stole money from his boss and falsely attributed irregular transactions to him, the Cape Town High Court heard on Monday.
Freddie Steenkamp, the bookkeeper for Boesak’s Foundation for Peace and Justice, has already been convicted on counts of fraud and theft and is serving a six-year prison sentence.
Mike Maritz, SC, for Boesak, told the court the defence would show that Steenkamp made irregular loans from funds donated to the FPJ by foreign aid agencies and stole Boesak’s money.
Boesak has pleaded not guilty to 32 counts of fraud and theft involving about R1,1-million in foreign donor funds. The state alleges that Boesak set up the FPJ and used it to channel funds from overseas donors into accounts he used for his own purposes.
Maritz, cross-examining forensic accountant Dawn King, read from a long list of transactions made by Steenkamp when he worked at the FPJ. He said there were numerous cases where Steekamp arranged loans and later wrote them off.
Maritz said there were also cases where transactions were conducted for Steenkamp’s benefit, but were attributed to Boesak. He quoted two examples — one where R8000 was spent on painting a house and the other where R2200 was spent at Joshua Doore furniture dealers.
King admitted that the paint job had been wrongly attributed to Boesak and the item was subsequently removed from the indictment.
When told that Steenkamp stole money from Boesak’s personal accounts, King said she was not aware of this.
Maritz has not yet indicated what the defence’s case will be, but from the cross-examination of King so far, the defence will apparently try to prove that large amounts of money from abroad were donated to Boesak for his personal use.
The hearing continues on Tuesday.