Cape Town | Tuesday
A LEADING South African church group, His People’s Centre, has banned disgraced cleric Allan Boesak from preaching to its congregation for refusing to apologise to the community after his release from prison last week.
Boesak, a former head of the World Alliance of Churches and leader of the African National Congress in the Western Cape was released after serving one third of his three year sentence for fraud and theft charges.
Hours after being released, he had told a crowd of about 5_000 members of His People’s Centre that he was innocent despite his conviction. Boesak apparently breached the promise he had made to the leadership of His People’s Centre. He also launched a scathing attack on the government for abandoning the poor and for failing to deliver a new South Africa to the majority of people in the country.
Centre representative, Errol Naidoo, accused Boesak of deceiving the church leaders because he had given an undertaking that he would use the occasion to apologise to the congregation.
In a letter to the Cape Times, Michael Swain, the director of the Centre, said Boesak has already been convicted by the state and completed a prison term.
“If he continues to maintain his innocence – and proclaims it from the pulpit – he is answerable to God and it is God who will either vindicate or judge Dr Boesak. Of deeper concern is the potential that this event has to cause division along racial lines,” Swain said.
Boesak was last year convicted on fraud and theft charges amounting to over $200_000. He was found guilty of using a Swedish aid grant for purposes other than intended by the donor. Boesak was also convicted on one fraud and one theft charge for stealing $38_000 from a $100_000 donated to children’s fund by the US pop star Paul Simon. – Pana
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