Kader Asmal has died at the age of 76 in Constantia, Cape Town. (8 October 1934 – 22 June 2011)

Kader Asmal was a South African politician. He served as the Vice-President of the African Association of International Law and as Chairman of the Council of the University of the North.

Luthuli House had received confirmation of the news from the ANC’s Western Cape office, secretary general Gwede Mantashe said.

E News reported He died in Constantia hospital in Cape Town after having a heart attack and slipping into a coma, . Asmal was the minister of water affairs and forestry from 1994, a member of the ANC’s national executive committee, and education minister from 1999.

Abdul Kadera Asmal was born on October 8, 1934, to a middle-class family of Stanger(now Kwa-Dukuza) in KwaZulu-Natal.

In his matric year he saw the Defiance Campaign’s leaders marching in prison uniforms through his town’s streets. His response was to lead a stay-away from his school.
After starting his studies for his teacher’s diploma in Durban in 1953, he strengthened his ties with Luthuli, his mentor, who had been banned and restricted to Groutville, near Stanger.

While teaching, Asmal obtained a BA degree through the University of South Africa.

In 1959 he went abroad to study law. He graduated from the London School of Economics four years later.
Because of his political activities he was not allowed to return to South Africa. Instead he accepted a teaching post at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.
He spent the next 27 years lecturing there, specialising in human rights, labour and international law.

In 1980 he was appointed Dean of the Arts Faculty.

Asmal was a member of both the London and Dublin bars and obtained two master’s degrees during this time.

He also served as vice-president of the International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa from 1968 to 1982, and as president of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties between 1976 and 1990.

He was involved with civil rights campaigns elsewhere in the world, including Northern Ireland and Palestine. Asmal participated in a number of international inquiries into human rights violations.

In 1983 he was awarded the Prix Unesco of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation in recognition for his work in the advancement of human rights.

Asmal also chaired the National Conventional Arms Control Committee which decides to whom South Africa should sell arms.

He and his wife Louise had two sons.

Board Chairman - UCB Committee on Cricket Franchise, South Africa
(2005 - 2011)

Chairman - National Assembly, Portfolio Committee on Defence, South Africa
(2004 - 2011)

Chairman - Joint Parliamentary Committee of Ethics and Members' Interests, South Africa
(1994 - 2011)

Chairman - ANC National Disciplinary Committee, South Africa
(1994 - 2011)

Chairman - National Conventional Arms Control Committee
(1995 - 2004)

Chairman - World Commission on Dams
(1997 - 2001)

Vice-Chairman - World Commission on Oceans
(1995 - 1998)

Founder and Chairman - Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement
(1972 - 1990)

Chairman - Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement
(1963 - 1972)

Vice-Chairman - Independent World Commission on Oceans