Chiara Carter
The about-face of the state’s star witness in the embezzlement trial of anti-apartheid hero Allan Boesak might mean that the court has to grapple more with questions about “struggle accounting” and lax management than personal dishonesty.
Until this week, former Foundation for Peace and Justice (FPJ) bookkeeper Freddie Steenkamp was the key accuser of his one- time hero and former boss, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of theft and fraud totalling R9-million.
Boesak is alleged to have taken more than R1-million of these funds for himself.
But this week, under cross-examination by Boesak’s lawyer, Mike Maritz, Steenkamp said his former boss was innocent of any dishonesty and admitted that he had previously lied under oath.
The testimony drew the first visible response from Boesak, who has sat pokerfaced during evidence by forensic accountants and former trustees.
It led to speculation in legal circles that the case might collapse, but the state seems determined to press ahead with hearing the evidence of more than 100 potential witnesses still due to testify.
There is no indication that the state is willing to drop some of the 32 charges against Boesak, particularly those involving the allegations of fraud which Steenkamp this week admitted he was solely responsible for.
Steenkamp’s reversal was yet another twist in his ambiguous relationship with Boesak, the man he says he idolised. Steenkamp and Boesak managed the FPJ, which assisted victims of apartheid, between 1988 and 1994.
Boesak trusted Steenkamp so much that he allowed him free access to a range of trust fund accounts as well as his personal accounts and left him with blank cheques when he was away from the office.
But Boesak was more than a colleague – he was Steenkamp’s mentor. Steenkamp said Boesak taught him about the finer things in life, including dining out and quality goods.
When the first hints of embezzlement in the FPJ became public, Boesak blamed Steenkamp, but the bookkeeper in turn accused his boss and eventually assisted forensic auditors and other investigators in several lengthy inquiries into the foundation’s affairs.
During his trial last year, Steenkamp, who pleaded guilty last year to six counts of fraud and theft totalling R3,7-million, placed much of the blame for his misdoing at Boesak’s door. He said in some cases he had acted under Boesak’s instructions, in others he was copying Boesak’s example and that the money he stole for himself was intended to help him be more like Boesak – the man he most admired. He wanted the same “nice clothes, good residential address and luxury vehicles”.
A social worker told the court that Steenkamp had hero-worshipped Boesak and sacrificed everything for his work at the FPJ. His first marriage had collapsed as a result.
Steenkamp has since remarried and has a baby daughter. The former bookkeeper’s testimony this week, however, showed him to have lied during his trial, smearing his “hero” in the hope of getting a lighter sentence.
Steenkamp admitted that not only did he make unauthorised loans to himself but he also stole large sums of money from Boesak’s personal funds, which were held in an urban discretionary account.
He could not say just how much he took but said he never stole from Boesak directly. He stole about R50 000 of Boesak’s insurance money, which he allegedly shared with Boesak’s secretary, Lucille Fester. He also admitted stealing money to buy two plots in Cape Town.
Steenkamp said he falsely implicated Boesak in “taking loans” during his trial last year because he thought it would mean he got a lighter sentence.
He conceded that he was responsible for an unauthorised telephonic transfer of R440 000 from the Children’s Trust Fund to the overdrawn FPJ account.
The court heard Maritz argue that between 1988 and 1994 Steenkamp had loaned and not repaid just less than R1-million, and the money was used for property transactions as well as the purchase of a luxury vehicle.
Steenkamp maintained this week that Boesak had deliberately misled the Coca-Cola foundation about a donation intended for projects in the Karoo.
However, he conceded he had not been well informed about a self-sustainable project, the purchase of the Kings Hotel in East London, where he says the funds went.