Sibusiso Nxumalo
MUZI SIKHAKHANE, newly elected president of the Wits SRC, has the daunting task of uniting a racially polarised student body. By his own admission, Wits students voted on racial lines last week — for the first time since black student involvement in the student governing body.
But Sikhakhane believes the situation can be salvaged. “Even though nine of the top 10 candidates were white, the SRC has made a commitment not to vote its executive council in racially,” he said.
At its first sitting, the new SRC voted him in as its president.
His status as a second-year student belies the 28-year- old former teacher’s experience.
Sikhakhane, who grew up in the rural area of Bulwer, has come a long way since his days as a refugee from United Democratic Front/Inkatha conflict in Natal.
“I spent a week sleeping with hoboes in Joubert Park after deciding that my life was in danger in Natal and fleeing to Johannesburg,” he said.
In Natal he organised in rural areas for the UDF. After a stint as a teacher at a Catholic school in Soweto, which included run-ins with education authorities, Sikhakhane decided to abandon the classroom for a career in law.
This week, on his first day at the head of Wits’ student government, he had to deal with the conflict that has ripped the university apart — a tussle between Sasco and the Wits administration.
“The problems are not insurmountable” he said. “The administration must learn that, like the RDP, the process of transformation must be people-driven and the student movement must learn that even though our demands are legitimate we cannot impose them.”
Sikhakhane says he can understand students’ frustration with an administration reluctant to change — but does not condone acts of violence.
“The only measure of how achievable our demands are depends on whether we can mobilise the support of all stakeholders at this university. No one must be left behind,” he said.
Above all, Sikhakhane believes the administration and the new SRC should not fall into the trap of wanting to “help” students.
“We must not want to be mess-iahs. We must take students with us; fail with them, or succeed with them. If students depend on us to succeed for them, then I believe we have disempowered them and have thus done them a disservice.”