Alex Boraine

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 in Cape Town and grew up in a poor white housing estate. Having been ordained as a Methodist minister in 1956 and his first position was in Pondoland East. 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. From 1986 to 1995, Boraine headed two South African nonprofit organizations concerned with ending apartheid and addressing the legacy it left behind.

Boraine was one of the main architects of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). 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. 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