26 Facts About Allan Boesak

Allan Aubrey Boesak was born on 23 February 1946 and is a South African Dutch Reformed Church cleric, politician and anti-apartheid activist.

Allan Boesak was sentenced to prison for fraud in 1999 but was granted an official pardon and reinstated as a cleric in late 2004.

Originally from Kakamas, Boesak became active in the separate Coloured branch of the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk and began to work as a pastor in Paarl.

Allan Boesak became known then as a liberation theologian, starting with the publication of his doctoral work.

Allan Boesak was elected as president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches in 1982, a position he held until 1991.

Allan Boesak rose to prominence during the 1980s as an outspoken critic and opponent of the National Party's policies and played a major anti-apartheid activist role as a patron of the United Democratic Front from 1983 to 1991.

In 1991, Allan Boesak was elected chairman of the Western Cape region of the African National Congress.

Allan Boesak resigned from the Dutch Reformed Church in 1990 after details of an extramarital affair with television presenter Elna Botha emerged; they later married.

In 2004, Allan Boesak came out in favour of same-sex marriage in South Africa, a year before the country's Constitutional Court ruled that the denial of marriage to gay people was discriminatory and violated the country's constitution.

In 2008, while serving as the Moderator of the Cape Synod of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa, to the shock of many senior church leaders, Allan Boesak announced that he was going to resign all of his positions within the church because of its discriminatory position on homosexuality and gay and lesbian people.

Allan Boesak invoked the anti-apartheid 1986 Belhar Confession, which lambasts all forms of discrimination, to say that the church should welcome gays and lesbians, begin to perform gay marriage ceremonies, and appoint gay clergy.

In 2008, Allan Boesak publicly challenged the South African leadership to remember why the country had set out to join all races and create a non-racial South Africa.

In reaction, the ANC leaked a memorandum written by Allan Boesak, detailing how he had discussed different roles he could play to help the organisation and stating that his preferred choice was the post of South African ambassador to the United Nations.

Allan Boesak censured Thabo Mbeki for failing in his role as the Southern African Development Community's official mediator to heed the churches' call for a peace-keeping force.

Allan Boesak called for a revaluation of affirmative action, describing the way it was used in the Western Cape as "totally inexcusable".

For six weeks Allan Boesak held out while the scandal was aired in the press.

Allan Boesak's response was to deny all responsibility, to blame his staff and to claim that he was a victim of racism.

Allan Boesak went on to praise Boesak as 'one of the most gifted young men in the country' who deserved a 'high diplomatic post'.

Allan Boesak pronounced himself vindicated, demanded a public apology from DanChurchAid and offered his services to the government.

The outcry eventually died down, and Allan Boesak did not get a government job.

Allan Boesak was charged and found guilty of fraud on 24 March 1999.

Allan Boesak was jailed in 2000 and released in 2001, having served just over one year of his three-year sentence.

Allan Boesak said that in his book he will explain why the banning of UDF affiliates meant the money could not be accounted for.

Allan Boesak maintains that keeping this silence was one of the main reasons for his conviction.

Allan Boesak joined the new Congress of the People party in December 2008, and was selected in February 2009 as the party's premier candidate for the Western Cape in the 2009 Provincial and National Elections.

In November 2009, Allan Boesak resigned from Congress of the People.