Alex Boraine

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	5 December 2018(aged 87) Cape Town,South Africa
Alma mater	Rhodes University University of Oxford Drew University
Known for	IDASATruth and Reconciliation Commission

Alexander Lionel Boraine(10 January 1931 – 5 December 2018)was a South African politician, minister, and anti-apartheid activist.

Early life

Alex Boraine was born inCape Townand grew up in a poor white housing estate.He would leave high school in Standard 8, two years beforematricand started working as a ledger clerk.He hadn't told his parents about his decision.As a member of theMethodist Church,he became a lay preacher in 1950.

Education and early career

At 23, he studied atRhodes Universityin South Africa where he obtained aBachelor of Artsdegree in Theology and Biblical Studies in 1956.Having been ordained as a Methodist minister in 1956 and his first position was in Pondoland East.After being sponsored by rich Methodists, Boraine attended Mansfield College atOxford Universityin England and obtained aMaster of Artsin 1962.A further scholarship saw him attendDrew Universityin the United States where he obtained hisPhDin Systematic Theology and Biblical Studies during 1966.In 1970, he was appointed youngest-ever President of theMethodist Churchof Southern Africa, a position he held until 1972.As the head of the Church at the "height of apartheid", he took a stand that the Church "should be multiracial."During his time as President of the church, he visited mine compounds and began to criticise the working and living conditions of black miners.In 1972 he was invited to joinAnglo AmericanbyHarry Oppenheimerto implement changes to the working and living conditions of its black employees as an Employment Practices Consultant, a position he held for two years.

Politics

Boraine was asked to stand in1974 South African general electionand was elected to parliament as an MP for theProgressive Partyin the Pinelands constituency, won by only 34 seats.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.The two men foundedIDASA,which organized the 1987Dakar ConferencewithANCleaders inDakar,Senegal.From 1986 to 1995, Boraine headed two South African nonprofit organizations concerned with endingapartheidand addressing the legacy it left behind.

Boraine was one of the main architects ofSouth Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission(TRC).He was involved in drafting the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, No. 34 of 1995.In 1995, he was appointed by PresidentNelson Mandelato be its deputy chair of the TRC serving under Chairman ArchbishopDesmond Tutufrom 1996 to 1998.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.In 2001 Boraine co-founded theInternational Center for Transitional Justice,an international human rights NGO.He served as ICTJ's president for three years, and subsequently, the chairperson of ICTJ's South Africa office.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.He published five books,includingA Country Unmasked,published byOxford University Pressin November 2000, andA Life in Transition,published by Struik Publishers in June 2008.

Awards

Boraine was awarded theOrder of the Baobabin 2014.Other awards include the 2000 honour from Italy, the President's Medal for Human Rights.

Death

He survived prostate cancer in 2008 but by 2015 he was diagnosed with bone cancer with three to 12 months to live.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.He is survived by his wife Jenny, his four children, Andrew, Kathryn, Jeremy and Nicholas and seven grandchildren.

Publications

• Alex Boraine and Janet Levy (31 December 1997)Dealing with the Past: Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa
• Alex Boraine (1 February 2001)A Country Unmasked: Inside South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission
• Alex Boraine (1 September 2008)A Life in Transition
• Alex Boraine (26 February 2013)What's Gone Wrong?: South Africa on the Brink of Failed Statehood

External links

• About Alex Boraine