JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- The fall from grace of Allan Boesak, an activist anti-apartheid cleric, ended yesterday with a six-year prison sentence for theft and fraud involving $200,000 donated for the victims of white supremacy.

Boesak, 53, whose opposition to apartheid earned him an international reputation, used the stolen money to finance the high life after leaving his wife of 21 years to marry television producer Elna Botha.

The tough prison sentence did little to quell the debate about whether and how much Boesak's high-profile activities during the years of the "struggle" should weigh in the scales of justice.

Supporters said the prison term showed that the injustices of apartheid were still operating in the court system. The prosecution argued that his "struggle" credentials did not mitigate his crime, which they said was inspired by greed.

The debate has been intensified by the suspended five-year sentence imposed this week on white farmer Nicholas Steyn, who shot and killed a 6-month-old black baby being carried across his land on her cousin's back.

Steyn said he fired a warning shot into the air as a warning against trespassing. The court found that the bullet hit the baby after ricocheting.

"We are outraged by the [Steyn] sentence," said Sowetan, the leading black newspaper. "This travesty of justice cannot be reconciled with the new democratic order in the country."

In a separate editorial on the Boesak case, the newspaper said the conviction of such a prominent anti-apartheid activist proved that the "judiciary's independence cannot be faulted" but added, "Having said this, Boesak's contribution to the struggle for the liberation of the oppressed people of this country should not be discounted."

Boesak, who has maintained his innocence, was released on bail pending an appeal.

When he was arrested two years ago, leaders of the ruling African National Congress, including President Nelson Mandela, rushed to his defense, displaying the loyalty for which veterans of "the struggle" are renowned.

After his conviction on three counts of theft and one of fraud last week -- 23 other counts were dismissed -- a cartoon published in the Sunday Independent showed Mandela eating his words.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who chaired South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, carried his support for Boesak into the courtroom for this week's sentencing hearing.

In a written appeal, Tutu implored the Cape Town judge to impose a suspended sentence.

"It was not surprising that those of us who threw ourselves wholeheartedly into the struggle may have made mistakes," said the retired archbishop, who described Boesak as a "friend and partner." Tutu was a trustee of the charity that Boesak robbed.

Boesak was accused of stealing the money from the now-defunct Foundation for Peace and Justice, of which he was director. Most of the stolen funds were donated by U.S. singer Paul Simon and Swedish donors.

The money was meant to aid victims of apartheid, particularly children. Boesak, according to court testimony, used it to buy a house in Cape Town's ritzy Constantia suburb, pay off his wife's credit card debts and buy her a video production studio.

The judge said Boesak's 1991 marriage to Elna Botha was a "watershed" in the cleric's life.

It not only cost Boesak the presidency of the World Council of Reformed Churches, but it introduced him to a lifestyle he could not afford without tapping the charity funds.

It did not initially affect his political prospects. He was elected ANC leader in Western Cape province in 1991. After the 1994 election of South Africa's first black-majority government, Boesak became provincial economic minister.

His arrest two years ago ended his career, forcing him to live off the charity of friends pending his trial.

Pub Date: 3/25/99