Mail & Guardian reporter
The probability of senior African National Congress leaders testifying in mitigation of sentence for Allan Boesak next Tuesday are slim.
When Boesak was accused of stealing from foreign donors and flew back to South Africa to stand trial, thousands of supporters turned out at the airport to cheer him.
Minister of Justice Dullah Omar raised eyebrows by greeting him with a hug. President Nelson Mandela questioned whether the state should be prosecuting the case.
An internal inquiry by the ANC, headed by Deputy President Thabo Mbeki’s legal adviser, Mojanku Gumbi, cleared Boesak before the trial even began.
The message was clear. Boesak had powerful friends who believed the charges were trumped up to discredit one of the most prominent campaigners against apartheid.
But as Boesak’s trial revealed how aid money funded a lavish lifestyle while millions of blacks lived in squatter camps, his friends began to back away.
On Wednesday there were no prominent ANC leaders in court to hear the 54-year-old cleric convicted of theft and fraud.
Mbeki’s representative, Ronnie Mamoepa, said Gumbi’s exoneration of Boesak “was made on the basis of evidence presented to the office, but obviously the court may have had access to more data than she had at the time”.
Most political parties rejoiced on Wednesday, issuing statements welcoming the judgment as a blow against corruption. Omar’s representative, Paul Setsetse, said the minister was not surprised at the ANC opponents’ reactions as they were “electioneering slogans”.
Boesak has long been a controversial figure. Although he was president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches for a decade and a founder of the United Democratic Front, he was also notoriously unfaithful to his wife.
The UDF propelled the hugely popular speaker – who modelled his style on Martin Luther King – into the international spotlight.
He was arrested on several occasions; once for trying to organise a march to demand Mandela’s release.
The lead-up to South Africa’s 1994 election held out the promise of a prominent political role for Boesak. But a newspaper caught him in a hotel room with a white television producer, Elna Botha. He admitted to an affair and was forced to resign his church positions. He divorced his wife and married Botha.
The affair contributed to growing disillusionment with Boesak within the coloured community in the Western Cape.
The trial cost him his appointment as South African ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva.