Mr Speaker, I smuggled Kader Asmal into this Parliament in my little car for his very first visit at some point after his return from Ireland, to an institution which we would soon thereafter, with the two constitutions, change beyond recognition to the open, public, participatory place that it now is. He just could not wait to see the place, I think, firstly because of his great love for democracy and the law, and secondly from sheer excitement, because we were on the threshold of making history. We would make new law for South Africa in these same hallowed halls where the old laws were made, which both he and we in the then DP opposed.
As his friend, the hon Wilmot James, notes, Kader Asmal saw our country as a theatre of promise at a moment in time when, as his friend the Nobel Laureate and poet Seamus Heaney put it, "hope and history rhyme". It is a sad, sad thing that someone who thrived on enthusiasm and was propelled by optimism was disillusioned with many trends at the end. His spirit did not fail, however.
I celebrate the fact that his last blast on a public platform, on Youth Day, was about the rights to free speech and access to information, which come into contention in the secrecy Bill. I just wish that I had let Kader know that progress was in fact being made in the ad hoc committee. We are still here, doing what we have always done, after all, especially for free speech.
Sir, let me mention as an aside that we had in common a commitment to and a passion for the fundamental human rights and a particular devotion to free speech, and that the hate speech provision of the right to free expression in the 1996 Constitution was effectively negotiated and settled between us. It was always a pleasure to negotiate with a real gentleman.
Kader truly cared for constitutionalism. He loved and lived for the great legal and political principles which we all share. We all share them, because they are now built into our founding document. If it was always a pleasure to negotiate with him, it was later also - well, usually - fun to work with him. As the hon James notes, he had a special ability to get many people of talent to work for him and do so in the spirit of public service. He notes that such people ranged from Antjie Krog and Gcina Hlophe to Edward Said and clearly to Dr Wilmot James himself. He says:
[We] ... made our contribution because we admired his intellect, passion and stubborn determination to make our country work. If the truth be told, we did it because we adored him for his mix of intelligence, an utter self-confidence that bordered at times on arrogance, his powerful sense of purpose, his unwavering sense of public morality ...
Sir, those of us who worked with Kader on parliamentary projects, such as the Chapter 9 Review, will agree, but wrily, that he had a special ability to get many people to work for him. The MPs who produced the Chapter 9 Review included myself and the ANC's Carol Johnson, but what was the report called? Why, it was called the Asmal Report. [Laughter.]
Kader, above all, had a gift for communication and, yes, publicity, but he truly devoted that gift to advancing the great values, even if a little limelight did come his way, and we did love him for that. The public, via the press, loved him. They felt that they knew him and that is how a public representative should be.
I, on behalf of the DA, extend my dearest condolences to Louise - this is such a shock - and also to the children and mesdames et messieurs from KwaZulu-Natal. [Applause.]