16 October 2019| Volume 78 | Edition 10
Out With the Old, in With the New
By Akhona Matshoba
Source: tripadvisor
Meeting the threshold with a 25.4% of votes in category A, the newly elected SRC for 019/2020 will commence official duties on 1 November 2019.
O
n 4 October the results for the 2019 Student Representative Council (SRC) election were finalised despite the Election Commission receiving objections to the results and campaign spending reports. The Economic Freedom Fighters Student Council (EFFSC) swooped in with a majority, securing ten seats in the SRC. Followed by the South African Students Congress (SASCO) securing four seats and independent elect Zinhle Geluk, who received the most votes (1933), also securing a seat. With the portfolio allocation meeting that took place on the 8 October Akha Tutu and Reatlegile Magano both from EFFSC were elected into the presidency with Tutu being the President and Magano the Vice President of the 2019/2020 SRC. This SRC election season we saw a significant drop in the voting figures in comparison to the 2018 election process with the overall proportion of votes received dropping by 6 percentage points. VARSITY spoke to a few of the newly elected SRC office-bearers to find out more about their plans for their upcoming term in office. SASCO’s Aviwe Vilani, the incoming Student Advocacy Coordinator, cites lack of awareness as the reason for the decrease, saying that students don’t know about the SRC. “What we need to do first is to make them [students] aware, in that way we can also improve the roles of accountability… people need to know of the SRC itself first before we can even start improving other issues,” said Vilani.
“rhetoric has never led to action” When incoming International Student Coordinator Zinhle Geluk was asked about her decision to run for the SRC as an independent, and not under a political organisation, she asserted her need to move away from the politics and focus on the needs of students. Geluk spoke to avoiding dilemmas which
often come about “when the party policy and values sometimes contradict with what the students really need”. This is a sentiment shared by Lance-Selae August, the incoming Undergraduate Academic Chair, who believes that at times rhetoric can be the enemy of progress. “Rhetoric has never led to action. Sitting in political spaces, I see and hear people push rhetoric, and as valid as they sound, the conversation tends to go around in circles” said August. August goes on to say that they prefer a more pragmatic approach to leadership which is about finding “active solutions to solve the problems”. When asked about the practicality of this approach, given that they are a member of the FFSC (a student political organisation) August responded saying, “The EFFSC has strong ideological foundations, but unlike other political organisations, they do not push rhetoric all the time.
Before the results were finalised, there were objections posed to the Election Commission. One of which was from Caleb Kay of the Democratic Alliance Students’ Organisation (DASO), and it was related to campaign spending reports. “When it comes to the Election Commission and how they handled complaints that were laid against the EFFSC, I must say I was extremely disappointed. In fact, I would go as far as to question the competency of some of them to sit in a meeting where complaints of the election are being discussed because their outcomes were horrendous,” Kay mentioned.
There is a rhetorical-pragmatic balance in the EFFSC.” Candidates during the campaign season ran on multiple issues including food insecurity at UCT, accommodation over-allocation, providing students with concessions i.e. free student wellness services etc. But given that the SRC serves a 10-month term, candidates were asked how achievable their goals are given the time frame. Geluk emphasised the importance of continuity and teamwork in governance as this, according to her, yields better results. “I believe in the importance of team essence, so if the team is coherent with each other then it’s easier to sort of execute whatever your vision is for the SRC and for the students.”
Dyer, a member of the EFFSC, pointed out that perhaps complainants may have found issue with the scheduling of one voting day being on a public holiday by saying, “we saw a sharp decrease in votes in terms of the daily average. There was a sharp decrease that day. Going forward I do think the Elections Commission should be more mindful of public holidays and just benchmark other institutions in terms of how they conduct elections.” Dyer did note, however, that this could not have affected candidates negatively as voters could still vote online.
Declan Dyer, the incoming Corporate and Fundraising Coordinator, notes the importance of resources in making the SRC visible and accessible. He states that this will be one of his objectives during his term in office. Acknowledging that his biggest priority now will be securing funds for the SRC bail-out fund. “The predominant objective is the bail-out fund for students who are financially excluded, that fund assists a large number of students every year” said Dyer.
Asemahle Ntumntum, incoming Secretary General and EFFSC member, nullified the objections saying, “It is just rumours from doomsayers who do not want to accept that UCT EFFSC is in charge again. All complaints that were submitted with “evidence” were [resolved]. We read the SRC Elections regulation and every procedure was followed, we did
“all complaints that were submitted with ‘evidence’ were [resolved]”
“we did not do anything we were not supposed to do”
not do anything we were not supposed to do.”