Kader Asmal was an old-school African National Congress freedom fighter who was never afraid to speak out about what he believed was right and wrong in post-apartheid South Africa.
At a time when so many stalwarts of the ruling party insisted that blind obedience to the ANC was essential for the reconstruction of the country, Asmal was notable for standing apart from the rest of South Africa’s intellectual elite.
Asmal, a barrister and an academic, was nicknamed “the bee” because he always stinging ANC members to complain less and work harder. He helped to draw up South Africa’s post-apartheid constitution in 1994. Although popular with Nelson Mandela, he was not a member of the clique of powerful politicians and financiers who surrounded Thabo Mbeki, Mandela’s successor as president from 1999 to 2008.
Asmal recently told journalists that if the plan by Julius Malema, the loud-mouthed leader of the ANC Youth League, to politicise the police force came about he did not want to be alive to see it happen. Six days before his death he stood outside Parliament to denounce a Bill that could restrict free speech and a free press in South Africa — the Protection of Information Bill would give civil servants the right to prohibit anyone from commenting on any government documents that they chose to classify. Penalties would include up to 25 years in prison.
Abdul Kader Asmal was born in 1934 at Stanger in Natal, one of seven children of an Indian shopkeeper. He was known for being studious, hard-working, charming, idealistic and peaceful but could also be self-indulgent. During one early-morning interview Kader asked if 9.30 was a bit too early for “a snifter”. He was also a chain smoker for most of his life.
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He became enamoured with the ANC after meeting the African nationalist and 1960 Nobel Peace Prize winner Chief Albert Luthuli. He was attracted to the law after seeing films about Nazi concentration camps and in 1959 he left white-run South Africa, first for London and, in 1963, Dublin, where he took up a junior lectureship in law at Trinity College.
He was as a barrister at Lincoln’s Inn, London, and then at King’s Inns, Dublin, and finally at the South African Supreme Court. In Ireland he is best remembered as the key founder of the Anti-Apartheid Movement which he chaired between 1972 and 1991.
He was also vice-president of the International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa (1968-82) and in 1979 he served as a member of the International Commission for Inquiry into the Crimes of Apartheid. Three years later he was rapporteur of the international Commission of Inquiry into Violations of International Law by Israel and was associated with the United Nations inquiry into the refugee camp massacres at Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon in 1982.
After teaching law in Ireland for almost 27 years, he returned to his homeland shortly after the ban on the ANC was lifted by President F. W. de Klerk in February 1990. Asmal, who enjoyed the unqualified support of Mandela, later helped to frame the country’s post-apartheid constitution; South Africa’s first multi-racial elections — one person, one vote — were held in 1994, with Mandela inaugurated as the country’s first black president on May 10.
One of Asmal’s main contributions to the new society was to compose guidelines prohibiting the sale of arms to countries where they would be used to suppress democracy or wage unjust wars. After serving as minister of water and forestry (1994-99) and as education minister (1999-2004), Kader left government in 2004 and resigned from Parliament in 2008 in order to avoid having to vote in favour of the disbanding of the elite police force, the Scorpions, who were investigating an expenses racket among MPs and the involvement of ministers in an arms scandal.
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In 2008, in a lecture at the University of Johannesburg, Asmal called on the young to promote ethics and morality in public and private life. “We need to speak out,” he said. “We need to ensure that out own words and deeds contribute to the rejuvenation of the values that propelled many of us to wage the struggle for our country’s liberation.”
He is survived by his English-born wife, Louise, and two sons.
Kader Asmal, South African politician, lawyer and academic, was born on October 8, 1934. He died after a heart attack on June 22, 2011, aged 76