By Marimuthu Subramoney
(aka Subry Govender)
Another great South African who spoke out strongly and without any fear till his last moments to protect the struggle principles and values that the ANC and others had fought and died for is no longer with us.
Professor Kader Asmal, who was born and went to school in KwaDukuza(formerly Stanger), passed away at the age of 76 in Cape Town on Wednesday, June 22. His death follows that of veteran women leader, Mrs Albertina Sisulu, who passed away on June 2 at the age of 92.
Professor Asmal, who was not a practising religionist, was cremated in Cape Town on Saturday, June 25, in a private family ceremony. The ANC has decided to honour him by holding two memorials - one in Cape Town and one in Johannesburg - after the official state ceremony in Cape Town on Thursday, June 30.
Professor Asmal, who served as Minister of Water Affairs and Minister of Education under the presidency of Mr Nelson Mandela and Mr Thabo Mbeki respectively since 1994, will be remembered as one the fearless leaders who expressed his views vociferously against any measures that threatened the non-racial and democratic constitution of the country. He also refused to be cowed down by the likes of a Julius Malema.
Only a week before his death, the former Minister chastised his organisation, the ANC, for wanting to rush through parliament the Protection of Information Bill, which he described as a measure that was so deeply flawed that it could not be fixed. He called for the bill to be scrapped. This is what he said:
"My fear or anxiety is that if the bill is forced through the ad hoc committee, people whose judgement I trust will lose faith in the democratic process."
Just over a year ago he did not mince any words when he described Julius Malema, who was re-elected leader of the ANC Youth League a fortnight ago, as a "lightning rod" who was using bullying and intimidation tactics to promote his "personal position, access and wealth".
He said: "This is corruption of the most corrosive kind and must be tackled at root. I fear we are observing our constitutional order being chiselled away to the point where we risk losing sight of the founding principles and practices of our democracy. One can see it and hear it."
And when Malema displayed his boorish attitude against a BBC reporter, Jonah Fish, during a press conference at Luthuli House in Johannesburg a few years ago, Professor Asmal wrote to the reporter apologising for the manner in which he was treated by the ANC Youth League leader.
When the elite crime busting unit, Scorpions, was scrapped after President Thabo Mbeki was forced to step down after the rantings by Malema, Professor Asmal resigned as a member of parliament after saying that he would not want to part of a process where the fight against corruption was being compromised. The Scorpions was done away with because the Zuma faction in the ANC saw the unit as being used by Mbeki to target Zuma.
Zuma was sacked as Deputy President by President Mbeki after the Durban High Court had ruled in a finding against Schabir Shaik that Shaik had paid Zuma more than R1,4-million in return for political favours and government contracts. But the Zuma faction members got their own back at the ANC's conference in Polokwane in 2007 when they ousted Mbeki as leader of the ANC.
The Scorpions was done away with when Kgalema Motlanthe served as President after Mbeki stepped down early in 2008.
When resigning as member of parliament, Professor Asmal said he saw the dissolution of the Scorpions as an attack on the constitution of the country.
Professor Asmal also did not pull any punches at a time when former President Mbeki failed to take a constructive stance in the fight against HIV-AIDs. It's understood that at a number of Cabinet meetings, Professor Asmal differed with Mbeki and spoke his mind. It was because of this that Mbeki declined to appoint Professor Asmal to a cabinet position after the third democratic elections in 2004.
Professor Asmal was not only giant in terms of promoting the values and principles of the struggle but was also an intellectual giant who gave his fellow ministers a lesson or two in how they should be handling their ministries.
Said former colleague, Essop Pahad: "He was an intellectual giant who taught many of us so much. Right until the end he remained the moral compass of both the ANC and our country on key social and moral issues."
Professor Asmal became politically conscious while still at school in Stanger and after he came under the influence of ANC stalwart and the country's first Nobel Peace Prize winner, Dr Albert Luthuli. After he matriculated, he qualified as a teacher at the former Sringfield College of Education. He taught for four years and at the same time studied for his BA at Unisa. He left the country in 1959 and studied at the London School of Economics, King’s Inns, Dublin and Lincoln’s Inn, London, where he graduated as a barrister-at-law.
During his life in exile, Professor Asmal played a very important role in the anti-apartheid struggles. He was a founder member of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement in 1960, founder and chairperson of the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement, from 1964 to 1990, rapporteur of UN International conferences on apartheid, Havana, Cuba in 1976; Lagos, Nigeria in 1977, and Paris, France in 1986. He was a founder and chairperson of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties from 1976 to 1991 and legal advisor to the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee(SANROC).
He was an influential member of the ANC team that negotiated the transition from white minority rule to the non-racial democratic society during the Codesa talks in 1992 and 1993. He has been a member of the National Executive Committee of the ANC from 1991 to 2007. At the time of his death, he was a senior law lecturer at the University of Cape Town and served as chairperson of the Nelson Mandela Museum Council.
The former Stanger lad was a "moral compass" in more ways than one and an INSPIRATION to all South Africans.
In one of his final interviews just before his death he said he was influenced by Dr Albert Luthuli, Oliver Tambo, Yusuf Dadoo, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki and Nelson Mandela, among others.
"Despite the negatives there was hope. The country should take into account that there was the marginalised, the poor, and the deprived. Leaders should work to uplift their lives, instead of trying to enrich those who are already in comfortable positions. We ignore the disadvantaged at our own peril."
It's hoped that Professor Asmal's life will be a lesson for many of the current lot of politicians who claim to be working for a better life for all South Africans. Professor Asmal leaves a void that will be very difficult to fill, especially at a time when most former activists don't have the guts to stand up to the Malemas and others who want to trample the NON-RACIAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY that came into being in April 1994 after decades of struggle and sacrifice. - Subry Govender, Chief Editor.
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