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Tuks se amptelike studentekoerant / Official Tuks student newspaper / Kuranta ya baithuti ya semmušo ya Tuks
11September2017
year79issue15
Constitutional clause causes chaos Black ex-officio SRC members step down for white candidates to take their places
Illustration: Sally Hartzenberg
MARKO SVICEVIC, SHAUN SPROULE, HENRI UYS, CHAD JOHNSTON
On 31 August, the 2017/2018 Student Representative Council (SRC) was officially inaugurated. The inauguration however was only held for the 12 elected members and not for the ex-officio SRC members. According to an opening address at the inauguration by Director of the Department of Student Affairs, Dr Matete Madiba, the full SRC could not be inaugurated due to certain procedures and constitutional issues. Citing this, several reports began to appear on social media that the SRC would possibly not be constituted properly in terms of section 12 of Annexure A of the Constitution for Student Governance (CSG). This section provides for what happens when the SRC is not constituted by
the EBIT Faculty House. Romario Roman maintained his position as an ex-officio member. On 18 August, the sport executive committee held a meeting in which Rose Msomi was elected as the exofficio member of the committee. On 4 September, a re-election was held to ensure a white candidate was voted into the ex-officio position, and Therese Rodink was voted in as exofficio member. On 16 August, the RAG executive committee held a meeting in which Bradley Tjongarero was elected as the ex-officio member of the committee. On 7 September a re-election was held and Phindile Makhombothi was elected. On 29 August, the student culture executive committee held a meeting and Rudi Peters was elected as the ex-officio member of the committee. On 4 September, a re-election for at least 40% black, white, male and the ex-officio portfolio was held female members. The ex-officio with the aim of ensuring a white portfolios include seven seats on the person was voted into the position. SRC; two academic affairs subConsequently, Moné Erasmus was council representatives, two residence voted in as ex-officio for student sub-council representatives, one culture. RAG committee On 7 September, the residence subrepresentative, one “The person who council committee sport committee stepped into the held a meeting and representative position of the elected Aaron Masemola and one student (Olienhout residence) culture committee ex-officio member and Heidi Davis representative. (Asterhof residence) didn’t even apply for On 29 August, were elected as the exthe position initially...” the academic officio members of the affairs executive committee. committee held a On 8 September, an official meeting in which Romario Roman inauguration ceremony was held for the ex-officio members at (from the Law Faculty House) and Adlers Restaurant. The ex-officio Boniswa Tele (from the Education members were inaugurated along Faculty House) were elected as the with Mamello Motsi, the SRC ex-officio members of the committee. Deputy President who could not be On 31 August, Boniswa Tele was inaugurated on 31 August. replaced by Janie Geldenhuys from
The stepping down of black ex-officio members to make place for white members
According to one student culture executive committee member who preferred to remain anonymous, ex-officio positions were moved around because the SRC needed to have a certain number of white members as well as women, which they did not have. “We felt it was very undemocratic to change our SRC representative for the sake of the quota for the SRC. Even the white people with us felt that it was unfair, they felt they were being put in a position they were not ready to do. One EC member even said we felt like we had a gun to our head.” The member added that Dr Madiba, Dr Jorissen (Deputy Director of the Department of Student Affairs) and Mzikazi Noholoza (Head of Student Governance) came into the meeting and “before we could even say what we wanted to say, Dr Madiba told us that if we don’t comply UP will be taken to court. We felt that the ex-officio positions were not being protected. Dr Madiba told us that of the seven positions, five had to be white and four of these white members had to be female. We were told that consideration was given to remove our exofficio portfolio from the SRC if we didn’t comply. We were also told that if we didn’t comply a TSC might be put in place. We didn’t even know about this quota system before … how
come this has only come up now. As a committee, we vote for the best candidates and not according to race.” The member added that “The person who stepped into the position of the elected ex-officio member didn’t even apply for the position initially. Later that day we held a meeting to vote in a new ex-officio member - and we collectively decided that there were only two members that could be nominated and those were the two white females. Then we voted and the person voted in didn’t stand for the position originally but was eventually voted in. These elections were not free and fair.” Another former ex-officio member,
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