Alex Boraine

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Alex Boraine
Deputy Chairman of the
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 forIDASA Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Alexander Lionel Boraine (10 January 1931 – 5 December 2018)[1] was a South African politician, minister, and anti-apartheid activist.

Early life

Alex Boraine was born in Cape Town and grew up in a poor white housing estate.[2]: 17  He would leave high school in Standard 8, two years before matric and started working as a ledger clerk.[2]: 17  He hadn't told his parents about his decision.[2]: 17  As a member of the Methodist Church, he became a lay preacher in 1950.[2]: 17 

Education and early career

At 23, he studied at

Methodist 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 join Anglo American by Harry 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 

Politics

Boraine was asked to stand in

ANC leaders in Dakar, Senegal.[7] From 1986 to 1995, Boraine headed two South African nonprofit organizations concerned with ending apartheid and addressing the legacy it left behind.[8]

Boraine was one of the main architects of South 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 President Nelson Mandela to be its deputy chair of the TRC serving under Chairman Archbishop Desmond 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 the International 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] including A Country Unmasked, published by Oxford University Press in November 2000, and A Life in Transition, published by Struik Publishers in June 2008.

Awards

Boraine was awarded the Order of the Baobab in 2014.[8] Other awards include the 2000 honour from Italy, the President's Medal for Human Rights.[8]

Death

He survived prostate cancer in 2008 but by 2015 he was diagnosed with bone cancer with three to 12 months to live.

Nelson Mandela died.[9] He is survived by his wife Jenny, his four children, Andrew, Kathryn, Jeremy and Nicholas and seven grandchildren.[2]: 17 [10][11]

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

References

  1. ^ "Anti-apartheid activist Alex Boraine passes away". BizNews. 5 December 2018. Retrieved 7 December 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barron, Chris (9 December 2018). "Alex Boraine: Architect of TRC, but then felt it failed SA 1931-2018". Sunday Times (South Africa).
  3. ^ a b c d e "Annual Survey of American Law: 1999 Dedication - Alexander Boraine & Desmond Tutu". NYU Law. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  4. ^ "Desmond Tutu mourns passing of TRC co-founder Alex Boraine". Independent Online. 6 December 2018. Retrieved 7 December 2018.
  5. ^ Travesí, Fernando; Mai, Vincent (6 February 2019). "Remembering Alex Boraine: An Intimate Conversation". International Center for Transitional Justice. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  6. ^ a b c d e Villa-Vicencio, Charles (9 December 2018). "Alex Boraine refused to leave politics to politicians". News24. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  7. ^ "About Alex Boriane" Archived 2012-03-16 at the Wayback Machine, Random House Struik
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h "Alex Boriane", International Center for Transitional Justice
  9. ^ Grobler, Riaan (5 December 2018). "Former TRC vice-chairperson Alex Boraine dies at 87". news24. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  10. ^ "Former TRC vice-chairperson Alex Boraine dies". ENCA. 5 December 2018. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  11. ^ Etheridge, Jenna (13 December 2018). "Former TRC vice-chairperson Alex Boraine fondly remembered". news24. Retrieved 13 December 2018.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alex_Boraine&oldid=1182917341"