Alex Boraine | |
|---|---|
| Deputy Chairman of theTruth and Reconciliation Commission | |
| In office 1996–2003 | |
| President | Nelson Mandela (founder) |
| Leader | Archbishop Desmond Tutu (chairman) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1931-01-10)10 January 1931 Cape Town, South Africa |
| Died | (aged 87) Cape Town, South Africa |
| Alma mater | |
| Known for | IDASATruth and Reconciliation Commission |
Alexander Lionel Boraine (10 January 1931 – 5 December 2018)[1] was a South African politician, minister, and anti-apartheid activist.
Alex Boraine was born inCape Town and grew up in a poor white housing estate.[2]: 17 He would leave high school in Standard 8, two years beforematric and started working as a ledger clerk.[2]: 17 He hadn't told his parents about his decision.[2]: 17 As a member of theMethodist Church, he became a lay preacher in 1950.[2]: 17
At 23, he studied atRhodes University in South Africa where he obtained aBachelor of Arts degree in Theology and Biblical Studies in 1956.[2]: 17 [3] Having been ordained as a Methodist minister in 1956 and his first position was in Pondoland East.[2]: 17 [3] After being sponsored by rich Methodists, Boraine attended Mansfield College atOxford University in England and obtained aMaster of Arts in 1962.[2]: 17 [3] A further scholarship saw him attendDrew University in the United States where he obtained hisPhD in Systematic Theology and Biblical Studies during 1966.[3][2]: 17 In 1970, he was appointed youngest-ever President of theMethodist Church of Southern Africa, a position he held until 1972.[4] As the head of the Church at the "height of apartheid", he took a stand that the Church "should be multiracial."[5] During his time as President of the church, he visited mine compounds and began to criticise the working and living conditions of black miners.[2]: 17 In 1972 he was invited to joinAnglo American byHarry Oppenheimer to implement changes to the working and living conditions of its black employees as an Employment Practices Consultant, a position he held for two years.[3][2]: 17
Boraine was asked to stand in1974 South African general election and was elected to parliament as an MP for theProgressive Party in thePinelands constituency, won by only 34 votes.[2]: 17 He resigned in 1986 together withFrederik van Zyl Slabbert, believing that the South African parliament was not relevant in establishing a non-racial South African society.[6] The two men foundedIDASA, which organized the 1987Dakar Conference withANC leaders inDakar, Senegal.[7] From 1986 to 1995, Boraine headed two South African nonprofit organizations concerned with endingapartheid and addressing the legacy it left behind.[8]
Boraine was one of the main architects ofSouth Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).[6] He was involved in drafting the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, No. 34 of 1995.[6] In 1995, he was appointed by PresidentNelson Mandela to be its deputy chair of the TRC serving under Chairman ArchbishopDesmond Tutu from 1996 to 1998.[6] From 1998 until early 2001, he served as professor of law at New York University and as director of the New York University Law School's Justice in Transition program.[8] In 2001 Boraine co-founded theInternational Center for Transitional Justice, an international human rights NGO.[8] He served as ICTJ's president for three years, and subsequently, the chairperson of ICTJ's South Africa office.[8] Alex Boraine travelled to many countries that were in transition from dictatorship to democracy, at the invitation of governments and NGOs, to share the South African experience. Boraine was a member of the advisory board of Directors and a Global Visiting professor of law at the NYU School of Law's Hauser Global Law School Program.[8] He published five books,[8] includingA Country Unmasked, published byOxford University Press in November 2000, andA Life in Transition, published by Struik Publishers in June 2008.
Boraine was awarded theOrder of the Baobab in 2014.[8] Other awards include the 2000 honour from Italy, the President's Medal for Human Rights.[8]
He survived prostate cancer in 2008 but by 2015 he was diagnosed with bone cancer with three to 12 months to live.[6] He died in his sleep on 5 December 2018 inConstantia, Cape Town, at the age of 87. Boraine died exactly five years to the day thatNelson Mandela died.[9] He is survived by his wife Jenny; his four children, Andrew, Kathryn, Jeremy, andNicholas; and seven grandchildren.[2]: 17 [10][11]
