From the editor It’s giving ‘we don’t want to be held accountable’

Revolutionary greetings

Any student who attended this student forum will likely be left wondering one thing: what do these guys even do? The president, Njabulo Sibeko, who had run on a campaign of brilliant ideas of reform, revolution and expanding access to education, now ran a student forum shorter than a midroll ad on a Youtube video. Were you even sincere? Did you consider the ethics of your policy direction? You advocated for late registrations to push your organisational campaign #Sizofundangenkani (we will learn by force) - tell me then, how does a student who registers a week before the semester test pass that test? If Sizo funda ngenkani, then kumele sifunde ngemphela (if we are going to learn by force, we must learn for real). All you’re doing is worsening the cycle of historic debt for the same students you’ll be sleeping outside buildings for. But maybe that’s what you actually do. This is why your quarterly report was vague, but not so vague that we couldn’t tell that the office of the president did nothing. This is the cycle you stay relevant on, this is how you eat.

But enough about Mr President. After all, an ineffectual president is nothing without his army of blazer-chasing underlings (mostly). Student forum, which is arguably one of the biggest SRC-run events of the year, was marketed less than the two-bedroom sharing flat in Brooklyn, R4000 per month (roommate applications are still being accepted, by the way). Was this student forum even marketed well? I bet Christo would say so, but ask the people who didn’t attend. They’ll say, “Student forum? Is that my dad? Never met him in my life.” Don’t get us started on the deputy president; he’s been in student governance for at least two years. Genuinely asking, WHAT HAS THIS MAN DONE!? For real, what has he done? And he’s deputy president!? (We were just as shocked last year when the results came out.) MAN WAS LATE TO GIVE HIS BAD MANIFESTO, AND HE IS DEPUTY PRESIDENT!

Okay, let’s talk about the constitutional tribunal. Chief justice, only gonna ask once… Did you end early because you wanted to go study for your criminal law semester test? Did you forget to announce an alternative date because you need every day to work on that dissertation for ESS400? It’s cool, homie. All we know for sure is this: you probably should brush up on civil procedure (that was a law joke, for the laymans out there).

At least we learned one thing from student forum: the EFFSCUP still consists of more than five members (as their national shutdown of UP campus would have led us to believe otherwise). Also, who’s that old guy? He’s always grumpy; they call him the bishop… If anyone lost their geriatric dad, he’s with the EFFSC. They’re like a cult on campus.

See how there was nothing useful here? See how long this is? See how toxic this all is? That’s what talking to people in student governance is like.

Thank you.

Banathi Nkehli and Kirsten Minnaar

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