{{Short description|South African politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}} {{Use South African English|date=August 2012}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Kader Asmal | image = (2007-08-06) Barrys Memorial - Kader Asmal.jpg | office = Minister of Education | term_start = 1999 | term_end = 2004 | president = Thabo Mbeki | predecessor = Sibusiso Bengu | successor = Naledi Pandor | constituency = | majority = | office2 = Member of Parliament | term_start2 = 1994 | term_end2 = 2008<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jun/23/kader-asmal-obituary|title=Kader Asmal obituary|last=Uys|first=Stanley|date=2011-06-23|work=The Guardian|access-date=2017-05-21|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref> | predecessor2 = | successor2 = | constituency2 = | majority2 = | office3 = Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry | term_start3 = 1994 | term_end3 = 1999 | predecessor3 = Magnus Malan | president3 = Nelson Mandela | successor3 = Ronnie Kasrils | constituency3 = | majority3 = | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1934|10|8}} | birth_place = Durban | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2011|06|22|1934|10|8}} | death_place = | party = African National Congress | relations = | spouse = Louise Parkinson | children = 2 | occupation = | signature = | website = | footnotes = | caption = Asmal in 2007 }} '''Abdul Kader Asmal''' (8 October 1934 – 22 June 2011)<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/24/world/africa/24asmal.html?_r=1&ref=deathsobituaries|title=Kader Asmal, 76, Dies; Fought Apartheid|work=The New York Times|date=24 June 2011|agency=Associated Press}}</ref> was a lawyer in South Africa and Ireland and later a South African politician. He was a Senior Lecturer in Trinity College Dublin and a professor of human rights at the University of the Western Cape, chairman of the council of the University of the North and vice-president of the African Association of International Law. He was married to Louise Parkinson and had two sons.
Asmal was an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, received a doctorate Honoris Causa from Queen's University Belfast (1996) and was a laureate of the 2000 Stockholm Water Prize.
==Early life== Born in 1934, Asmal grew up in Stanger, KwaZulu-Natal. He was the son of an Indian shopkeeper and one of seven children.<ref name=":1" /> When he was a schoolboy, he met Chief Albert Luthuli, who inspired him towards human rights.<ref name="Memoir">{{Cite book|title=Kader Asmal: Politics in My Blood - A Memoir|last1=Asmal|first1=Kader|last2=Hadland|first2=Adrian|publisher=Jacana|year=2011|isbn=9781770099036|location=South Africa|pages=20–29}}</ref>
Asmal's political development first began in 1952 with the Defiance Campaign, when he was asked to become the secretary of the local rate payers' association. That exposed him to the local Indian community's efforts at dealing with apartheid when the government tried to enforce the Group Areas Act in Stanger.<ref name="Memoir" />
Later in 1952, Asmal left Stanger to attend the Springfield Teacher Training College in Durban. After graduating as a teacher in 1954, he was assigned to an all-Indian school in Darnall, KwaZulu-Natal. While at Darnall, he registered for a bachelor's degree by correspondence in English, politics, and history at UNISA.<ref name="Memoir" />
In 1959, Asmal qualified as a teacher and moved to London, where he enrolled at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He subsequently moved to Ireland, where he became a lecturer in law at Trinity College Dublin. He held that post for 27 years,<ref name=":0" /> and specialized in human rights, labour and international law.
Asmal qualified as a barrister in both the London and Dublin Bars and received degrees from both the London School of Economics (LL.M. (Lond.)) and Trinity College, Dublin (M.A. (Dubl.)).
==Political career== While in London, Asmal started the British Anti-Apartheid Movement.{{citation needed|date=January 2026}} Upon moving to Ireland, he founded the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement, and he also helped to establish the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and the Divorce Action Group.
Asmal served on the ANC's constitutional committee from 1986, and returned to South Africa in 1990. He later stated that, while in Ireland in the late 1970s, he had assisted the ANC to find IRA volunteers, who did reconnaissance on South Africa's Sasolburg refinery, which was then bombed by the uMkhonto we Sizwe, the ANC's military wing in 1980.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ira-aided-anti-apartheid-bombing-claimed-asmal-1.609314|title=IRA aided anti-apartheid bombing, claimed Asmal|last=Alexander|first=Peter|date=2011-08-29|work=The Irish Times|access-date=2017-05-21|language=en-US}}</ref>
Asmal was a board member of the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria.<ref>http://www.chr.up.ac.za/index.php/board.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111001211454/http://www.chr.up.ac.za/index.php/board.html |date=1 October 2011 }} Centre for Human Rights Board Members Retrieved 25 June 2011</ref>
=== Minister of Water Affairs === Shortly after returning to South Africa in 1990,<ref name=":0" /> Asmal was elected to the ANC's National Executive Committee. In 1993, he served as a member of the negotiating team of the ANC at the Multiparty Negotiating Forum. In May 1994, he was elected to the National Assembly, and he joined the Cabinet, as Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/professor-kader-abdul-asmal|title=Professor Kader Abdul Asmal|last=sahoboss|date=2011-02-17|website=South African History Online|language=en|access-date=2019-05-31}}</ref>
In 1996, World Wide Fund for Nature-South Africa awarded Asmal their gold medal for his conservation work. During his tenure, he supported the Global Water Partnership of which he was a patron. As Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry he spearheaded the recognition of the concept of "the environment as a prime water user".<ref name="WCD">{{cite web|url=http://dams.org/news_events/press282.htm |title=(24 September 1997) "South African Water Minister to Head New World Commission on Dams" |access-date=2017-05-01 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050208084216/http://dams.org/news_events/press282.htm |archive-date= 8 February 2005 }}</ref> While serving as Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, he also served as the chairman of the World Commission on Dams (1997–2001). His work as Minister of Water Affairs is widely regarded as successful, which was attributed largely to his ability to work with the still-largely Afrikaner civil service.<ref name=":1" />
===Minister of Education=== Although Asmal was not as close to President Thabo Mbeki as he was to President Nelson Mandela,<ref name=":1" /> he was promoted to Minister of Education in 1999<ref name=":0" /> after that year's general elections.<ref>[http://chronicle.com/weekly/v45/i44/44a04501.htm Vergnani, Linda (9 July 1999) "Education Minister in South Africa Seeks Better Training for Aspiring Teachers"] ''Chronicle of Higher Education'' 45(44) p. A45</ref> Among his initiatives as Minister of Education was the launching in 2001 of the South African History Project "to promote and enhance the conditions and status of the learning and teaching of history in the South African schooling system, with the goal of restoring its material position and intellectual purchase in the classroom".<ref>[http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/2001/0108281145a1002.htm "Speech by the Minister of Education, Professor Kader Asmal, at the launch of the South African History Project"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604091703/http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/2001/0108281145a1002.htm |date=4 June 2011}}, Old Fort, Johannesburg, 27 August 2001</ref>
Given the vast inequalities in the education system that were inherited from the apartheid regime, the post was seen by many as a poisoned chalice. After rolling back some of the ANC's more ambitious education policies to make his brief more realistic, he managed to introduce some of the most significant and far-reaching changes to the country's education system in its history. One of his most controversial moves as Minister of Education was to threaten South African universities with quotas if they failed to apply affirmative action policies to their students and staff. Asmal decide to close down all Teacher Training Colleges as well as certain Technical Colleges.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20080427091640134 | title=South Africa: Government may re-create Teacher Colleges | author= MacGregor, K |date=27 April 2008|access-date= 1 January 2019|publisher= University World News}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.jacarandafm.com/news/news/re-open-teacher-training-colleges-ifp/ |title= Re-open Teachers Training Colleges IFP| author=Lomwabo, M|date=23 September 2014|publisher= JacarandaFM|access-date= 1 June 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=3qCNCgAAQBAJ&q=%22Education+in+a+New+South+Africa%22 |author=Balfour, R.J|date=2015|publisher= Cambridge University Press |access-date=10 April 2019|isbn=9781107447295|title=Education in a New South Africa}}</ref> Outcome-based education was introduced during his tenure, and scrapped a few years later.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.westerncape.gov.za/text/2004/5/tirisanocalltoaction.pdf |title= Call to Action: Mobilising Citizens to Build a South African Education and Training System for the 21st Century |author= Asmal. K |date= 27 July 1999 |access-date= 1 November 2019 |archive-date= 20 February 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200220130848/https://www.westerncape.gov.za/text/2004/5/tirisanocalltoaction.pdf |url-status= dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2010-07-04-outcomes-based-education-to-be-scrapped/ |title= Outcomes Based Education to be scrapped|author= Mahlangu, B |date= 5 July 2010|access-date= 7 December 2019|work=Sunday Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.iol.co.za/capeargus/opinion/we-can-still-turn-our-education-system-around-40319543 |title=We can still turn our education system around | author= Isaacs, B| date= 12 January 2020 |access-date= 21 January 2020|publisher= Cape Argus}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= https://thoughtleader.co.za/bertolivier/2009/09/05/why-obe-has-not-worked-in-south-africa/|publisher= Mail & Guardian|author= Olivier, B|date= 5 September 2009|access-date= 1 January 2018|title= Why OBE has not worked in South Africa|archive-date= 21 December 2017|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20171221075425/http://thoughtleader.co.za/bertolivier/2009/09/05/why-obe-has-not-worked-in-south-africa|url-status= dead}}</ref>
===Backbencher=== In 2004, Asmal left government but would remain in Parliament until 2008.<ref name=":1" />
On 5 October 2007, he severely criticised Robert Mugabe for the situation in Zimbabwe, lamenting that he had not spoken previously, at the launch of a book ''Through the Darkness – A Life in Zimbabwe'', by Judith Todd, daughter of Southern Rhodesia Prime Minister Garfield Todd, an opponent of white minority rule under Ian Smith.<ref>[http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A579833 Asmal breaks ANC ranks on Zimbabwe] Business Day</ref>
Asmal resigned from parliament in 2008 in protest against the ANC's disbanding of the elite Scorpions anti-crime unit. He felt it was a poor decision and that it was improper that politicians who had been investigated and found by the Scorpions to be engaged in corruption then took part in the vote to disband the organisation.<ref>{{cite news|title=Why Kader Asmal resigned from Parliament|url=https://mg.co.za/article/2008-10-29-why-kader-asmal-resigned-from-parliament|access-date=22 June 2011|newspaper=Mail & Guardian|date=29 October 2008}}</ref>
==Later life== Asmal called for the controversial Protection of State Information Bill (also known as the "Secrecy Bill") to be scrapped.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rice |first=Melanie |title=Asmal calls for withdrawal of Information Bill |url=https://ewn.co.za/2011/06/17/Asmal-calls-for-withdrawal-of-Information-Bill |access-date=2022-11-11 |website=ewn.co.za |language=en}}</ref>
He published an autobiography, ''Politics in my Blood''.<ref name="Memoir" /><ref name=":0" />
He died in 2011 after suffering a heart attack.<ref name=":1" />
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/video.php?id=65-24F-A0 Video of Kader Asmal interviewed by Robert Vassen], Durban, South Africa, December 2004
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Asmal, Kader}} Category:1934 births Category:2011 deaths Category:African National Congress politicians Category:Alumni of the London School of Economics Category:Ministers of education of South Africa Category:Members of the National Assembly of South Africa 1994–1999 Category:Members of the National Assembly of South Africa 1999–2004 Category:Recipients of the Order of Luthuli Category:Recipients of the Legion of Honour Category:South African expatriates in Ireland Category:South African politicians of Indian descent Category:Academic staff of the University of the Western Cape