Kader Asmal resigned as an ANC member of parliament when it became plain to all of us that the ANC and the country were going to be led by a person who had never been to school, the son of a domestic worker, nogal. The MA graduate in economics (Sussex my boy) had been out-witted and cast aside. Our future president was going to be a man who saw nothing wrong in appearing in public wearing leopard skins, wielding a cowhide shield and a stick!
Some of us who remembered that the first president of the African National Congress was a Ph.D graduate and that he was followed by other doctors like Moroka etc. felt betrayed. The ANC never stated it as policy, but it had become ‘traditional' that any leader of the ANC would be a graduate. The educated classes, (lawyers and clergymen) had become the accepted leaders of the African National Congress.
It must be remembered that a lot of us in the ANC come from the educated and even monied middle-class, products of mission schools and universities, and that we possess a very deep-seated prejudice in favour of the middle-class. The Oliver Tambos and Nelson Mandelas were barristers, not herd boys from the rural areas who come from working-class homes.
The great Professor Asmal was outraged! He has spent most of his time in the hallowed halls of overseas universities and law courts, and he had made a significant contribution in the crafting of the South African Constitution. He had been Minister of Education, one of these ANC pundits who have made a hash of our education and got away scot-free. A fellow Londoner, Thabo Mbeki had been in charge of affairs in the country until 2008, and now these sans culottes (those without trouserses) had put one of their own in charge of the ANC and national affairs! The professor, along with a lot of us who possess high academic qualifications (Thula Bopela has two MAs!) were outraged. The only way out was to resign from parliament.
Professor Kader Asmal became a member of a group known in the ANC as ‘the walking wounded'. This term refers to ANC leaders who had influential positions during Mbeki's reign, lost these positions after Polokwane, but remained in the ANC. Some of them are very bitter that they lost their power and influence; others would have fled to COPE if COPE had realized its pre-election projections...that they would win 51% of the electoral vote. Some remain in the ANC to do COPE's work among us. How can they be identified?
They were yes-men during Mbeki's reign, questioning nothing, including the expulsion of Jacob Zuma from government. They found their voice when Mbeki was kicked out of power, and are heard only when there is something to say against the ANC government. They are not members of the opposition parties; they are ANC members, and oppose everything the ANC government plans to do. When they are tackled by members of the new government, a great shout of outrage is heard from among the ranks of those who are traditionally anti-ANC. COPE, DA and some self-appointed experts on ANC politics rush to their defence.