Kader Asmal | |
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Minister of Education | |
In office 1999–2004 | |
President | Thabo Mbeki |
Preceded by | Sibusiso Bengu |
Succeeded by | Naledi Pandor |
Member of Parliament | |
In office 1994–2008 [1] | |
Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry | |
In office 1994–1999 | |
President | Nelson Mandela |
Preceded by | Magnus Malan |
Succeeded by | Ronnie Kasrils |
Personal details | |
Born | Durban | 8 October 1934
Died | 22 June 2011 76) | (aged
Political party | African National Congress |
Abdul Kader Asmal (8 October 1934 – 22 June 2011) [2] was a South African politician. He was 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.
He 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.
Born in 1934,Asmal grew up in Stanger,KwaZulu-Natal. He was the son of an Indian shopkeeper and one of seven children. [1] When he was a schoolboy,he met Chief Albert Luthuli,who inspired him towards human rights. [3]
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. [3]
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. [3]
In 1959,Asmal qualified as a teacher and moved to London,where he enrolled at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Asmal was the founder of the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement. He claimed that while he was in Ireland in the late 1970s,he assisted the ANC to find IRA volunteers,who did reconnaissance on South Africa's Sasolburg refinery,which was then bombed by the ANC's military wing in 1980. [4]
While in London,he started the British Anti-Apartheid Movement and when he joined Trinity College Dublin as a teacher of human rights,labour and international law,he started the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement. 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.)).
He was a lecturer in law at Trinity College Dublin for 27 years, [4] specializing in human rights,labour and international law. Asmal served on the ANC's constitutional committee from 1986. While in Ireland he also helped to establish the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. He was a board member of the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria. [5]
In 1990,Asmal returned to South Africa [4] and shortly afterward,he 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. [6]
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". [7] 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. [1]
Although Asmal was not as close to President Thabo Mbeki as he was to President Nelson Mandela, [1] he was promoted to Minister of Education in 1999 [4] after that year's general elections. [8] 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". [9]
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. [10] [11] [12] Outcome-based education was introduced during his tenure,and scrapped a few years later. [13] [14] [15] [16]
In 2004,Asmal left government but would remain in Parliament until 2008. [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. [17]
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. [18]
Asmal called for the controversial Protection of State Information Bill (also known as the "Secrecy Bill") to be scrapped. [19]
He published an autobiography,Politics in my Blood. [3] [4]
He died in 2011 after suffering a heart attack. [1]
Albert John Luthuli was a South African anti-apartheid activist,traditional leader,and politician who served as the President-General of the African National Congress from 1952 until his death in 1967.
Sasolburg is the fourth largest city(After Bloemfontein,Welkom and Kroonstad) within the Metsimaholo Local Municipality in the far north of the Free State province of South Africa. Sasolburg is further sub-divided into three areas:Sasolburg proper,Vaalpark and Zamdela.
Central Johannesburg College (CJC) is a South African college founded in September 2001,with the official declaration Technical Colleges into Further Education and Training Colleges made by the Minister of Education,Kader Asmal. His declaration followed a national strategy to restructure the educational landscape of South Africa and provide improved access to a more diverse student population. It is the ultimate aim to create a Further Education and Training (FET) sector that will directly affect the transformation of society in terms of relevant education that will uplift the economy through active entrepreneurial training and the preparation of students for the world of work.
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The South African History Project (2001-2004) was established and initiated by Professor Kader Asmal,former Minister of Education in South Africa. This initiative followed after the publication of the Manifesto on Values,Education and Democracy and the Report of the History and Archaeology Panel in South Africa in 2001.This report was written by leading scholars who advised the then Minister of Education on the strengthening of the teaching of history in South African schools after the end of apartheid. The South African History Project addressed the challenges of revitalising the teaching and learning of history by setting up provincial networks which brought stakeholders in education,heritage,tourism and publishing together for the first time in post-apartheid South Africa.
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Stanger Secondary School is a public high school located in Stanger / KwaDukuza on the north coast of Kwazulu Natal in South Africa.
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