CAPE TOWN, Africa — South African anti-apartheid activist and former cleric Allan Boesak began a three-year jail term for fraud and theft May 15 as cheering supporters rallied at the prison.
As Ebrahim Rasool, the provincial leader of the ruling African National Cognress walked alongside, Boesak was carried to a police station on the shoulders of supporters who say they do not believe he mishandled money donated to help those victimized by the racist policies of apartheid.
The Supreme Court of Appeal upheld Bpesak’s conviction May 12 on two counts of fraud and theft involving nearly $200,000 of foreign donations earmarked for victims of South Africa’s apartheid regime. The court halved a 6-year sentence handed down last year by the High Court in Cape Town.
Boesak will be eligible for parole in December of next year. He is the former president of the Geneva-based World Alliance of Reformed Churches and once held a top post in the African National Congress in the Cape Town area, playing a leading role in dismantling apartheid.
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