An imam from the Cape Flats has found a prison buddy in Allan Boesak
Marianne Merten
Prison has brought together two religious leaders a soft-spoken imam, who is accused of conspiring to murder a magistrate, and vocal liberation cleric Allan Boesak, serving time for fraud and theft.
Imam Gasant Moos is detained in a cell neighbouring Boesak’s in the hospital section of Goodwood prison. The two met for the first time in the prison.
For 21 years Moos served at Shukrul Mubeen Mosque in York Road, Lansdowne, on the Cape Flats. He was arrested five weeks ago after a man who worked at the mosque implicated Moos in a conspiracy to murder Cape Town magistrate Wilma van der Merwe in September last year.
Moos is charged with several gangsters, prison inmates and members of People against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad). Moos, his family and friends deny he belongs to the anti-drug vigilantes, but some members of the group are part of his congregation.
The imam is closely linked to one of Cape Town’s two Muslim community radio stations, Voice of the Cape, where he presents a twice-monthly programme and serves on the board. The station is tied to the Muslim Judicial Council, which over the years has issued several strong state- ments against Pagad. The council’s leaders also came out in Moos’s support in 1997 after his house was bombed.
Boesak has been described as a “pillar of strength” and vital in getting Moos admitted to prison medical care for his high blood pressure and diabetes.
“He [Boesak] said: ‘Imam, you have done nothing wrong. What are you doing here?'” said the imam’s wife, Shabeda Moos.
Asked if her husband was perhaps trying to convert the cleric, she quickly hid her smile.
During one visit she saw how Boesak was giving a “lecture” to other inmates. “He is there, but he must also do work and give a little prayer!”
Since being jailed last May for fraud and theft of Scandinavian donor money, Boesak has continued his calling to the pulpit. On March 23 he sent a letter to Minister of Education Kader Asmal slamming his criticism of a Christian prayer meeting on Human Rights Day.
Recalling anti-apartheid protests, Boesak wrote: “We did not then ask if [Nelson] Mandela was a Christian, whether the exiles were communists, atheists or agnostics, or whether those detained shared our faith.”
Moos, too, has been able to pursue his congregational work after prison authorities recently allowed members of the mosque committee to visit. The father of four also helps his eight-year-old daughter Ruqayah with her Arabic homework through an intercom system from behind the thick glass during family visits.
“He is a very soft person. He doesn’t like trouble and things like that,” says Shabeda Moos. Couples he counselled or was about to marry and babies he was supposed to name have been left in the lurch.
Boesak, who has withdrawn his bid for early release under correctional supervision, still faces perjury charges for denying he used a stolen cellphone in prison, although billing records reflect otherwise. Authorities are continuing their investigation despite the murder of a fellow prisoner a gangster who supplied the phone shortly after his release on parole earlier this month.
At the end of January Boesak was transferred from Malmesbury prison in the Boland to the Goodwood jail, where the majority of inmates are awaiting-trial detainees. Correctional Services cited security reasons for the move, but declined to elaborate.
Concerned members of Moos’s congregation have formed a crisis committee to press for his release. A bail application to the Cape High Court is being prepared ahead of the scheduled trial in October.
Committee representative Riedwaan Kenny said more than 800 tickets at R100 each have been sold for a fund-raising dinner on Monday night.
Meanwhile, justice and police authorities have rejected claims of inadequate security for Western Cape judge Nathan Erasmus, saying he received better protection than Cabinet ministers. Erasmus collapsed in chambers this week following months of death threats.
The Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Development representative Paul Setsetse said security for the judge was understood to be adequate. “The judge recently indicated that some of the people looking after his family were incompetent. These people have since been removed.”
Security measures for several Western Cape judicial officers, particularly those presiding in cases involving members of Pagad, were implemented in September last year after the murder of Wynberg magistrate Piet Theron. There were two botched attacks against Van der Merwe. Subsequently, police say they have discovered a plot to kill Judge Roger Cleaver who, like Erasmus, jailed a Pagad member.
Although the police’s national protection service, or VIP unit, is guarding a number of magistrates, judges and judicial staff, the Western Cape justice office is funding security measures put in place last September.
Said Western Cape justice coordinator Hishaam Mohamed: “Over the past 18 months we have gotten used to getting various threats against judicial officers. We have had concern for some time now. But we have successfully managed these concerns.”
However, there is little if any protection for magistrates hearing gang-related cases in the lower courts despite threats on a day-to-day basis.