Kader Asmal:PROF KADER Asmal, who has died aged 76, was a member of the first democratically elected government of South Africa having previously been a leader of the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement.
He served as minister for water affairs and forestry between 1994 and 1999, and was in 2000 awarded the Stockholm Water Prize for his “unprecedented efforts in the field of water management in South Africa”.
Later, as minister for education, he described as “neo-colonial” the act of rich countries “poaching” teachers from poorer countries and claimed that South Africa had been losing 2,000 teachers a year.
He singled out the UK for particular criticism.
Born in Stanger, KwaZulu-Natal, in 1934, he was one of the eight children of an Indian shopkeeper.
He remembered his father bringing him up “with a deep understanding of freedom and anti-colonialism”. Educated at Springfield Teachers’ Training College, in 1957 he secured an external BA primary degree from the University of South Africa.
He moved to London, where in 1960 he was a founder of the Anti-Apartheid Movement. He studied law at the London School of Economics and in 1962 qualified with an LL.B, to which two years later he added a masters’ degree.
In 1963 he joined the staff of the law faculty at Trinity College Dublin, where he remained for 27 years.
He served as dean of the faculty of arts (humanities) between 1980 and 1986.
In 1963 also he helped to found the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement and was elected vice-chairman of the organisation. He was in 1972 elected as its chairman, which position he held until 1991. He led a highly effective campaigning group, which helped to turn Irish public opinion against apartheid in South Africa and won cross-party political support for reform in that country.
He was ably assisted in this work by his wife Louise Parkinson, secretary of the movement.
Highlighting the issue of racism in sport, the movement led protests against the Irish tour by the Springboks rugby team in 1970.
With Bernadette Devlin MP, Conor Cruise O’Brien TD, Ivan Cooper of the SDLP and Denis Larkin of the Workers’ Union of Ireland, Asmal led 6,000 protesters in a march to Lansdowne Road where Ireland hosted the Springboks.
Inside the ground, a smaller-than-usual crowd watched the teams, playing behind barbed wire, battle to an eight-point draw.
The movement continued to highlight the issue, throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s, much to the embarrassment of the South African government – and indeed of the Irish Rugby Football Union.
In time he found himself at odds with some fellow anti-apartheid campaigners. In 1984 the then taoiseach Garret FitzGerald was among a number of prominent members who resigned over Sinn Féin’s affiliation to the organisation.
In 1986 he condemned Cruise O’Brien for breaking the academic boycott of South Africa. O’Brien said he would not be lectured by the likes of Asmal whom he considered “politically devious”.
In 1990 Asmal told a rally at the GPO, Dublin, organised by the Committee to Reclaim the Spirit of 1916: “The 1916 struggle for independence was an inspiration for struggles for independence not only in India but in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.”
Also in 1990 he took the case of the Birmingham Six to the United Nations Human Rights Commission.
After the ANC was unbanned he returned to South Africa where he became professor of human rights law at Western Cape University.
Elected to the ANC leadership in 1991, he was a member of the ANC team at the multiparty negotiating forum convened in 1993.
He was elected an MP in 1994 and was appointed to the government of national unity. He was joined in cabinet by the captain of the 1970 Springboks team Dawie de Villiers.
In 1998 he was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer but continued his ministerial and parliamentary career for another six years.
In 2008 he attended the unveiling of a plaque in Dublin to honour Dunnes Stores workers for their stand against apartheid in the 1980s.
Last year he delivered the inaugural lecture at TCD’s Centre for Post-Conflict Justice.
Awarded the Unesco prize for the teaching and development of human rights in 1985, he was the recipient of honorary degrees from TCD, Queen’s University Belfast, Rhodes University, NUI Galway and the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland.
He was also awarded an honorary fellowship by the London School of Economics.
He was the author of two books and over 150 articles on the legal aspects of apartheid, labour law and decolonisation.
A founder member of the Irish Federation of University Teachers, he also assisted in the establishment of the Free Legal Aid Centres. In 1976 he was a founder member of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, which he said opposed “extremism from the State and individuals”.
Despite a busy life, he found time to nurture a love of gardening (“the only individualistic thing” he liked doing), the theatre, jazz and cricket – the latter inspired by the West Indian Marxist CLR James, who wrote about the game.
His wife Louise and sons Rafiq and Adam survive him.
Abdul Kader Asmal: born October 8th, 1934; died June 22nd, 2011