time
At Stellenbosch, blacks are running for office. And that’s not the only thing that’s different about this year’s student elections, report Joshua Amupadhi and Thandi Lewin
In a first for the new South Africa, political parties — the African National Congress, the National Party and the Freedom Front —are taking part in student elections at the University of Petoria.
Their participation has not been well- received by established student groups like the South African Students’ Congress (Sasco) and the Azanian Students’ Congress (Azasco).
Stephanie Allais, a Sasco education officer, questioned the role political parties would play in student representative councils (SRCs) and other student governance following the University of Pretoria lead, while agreeing they should be allowed to operate on campuses. She was worried that their participation might dissolve the impact of “progressive voices,” particularly on traditionally white, Afrikaans universities such as Tukkies.
Allais said: “We view ourselves as allies [with the ANC Youth League], we are similar organisations. The issue [of participation by parties] will depend on campus to campus, but we don’t understand what the role of the ANCYL will be. At Tukkies, for instance, we [ANCYL and Sasco] are competing against each other … this weakens the chance of a progressive voice at conservative institutions.”
However ANCYL national publicity and information secretary Thabo Masebe said the two organisations would still complement each other.
Masebe said: “We cannot expect our allies to do the work that the ANCYL should be doing. It is our responsibility to go to tertiary institutions and popularise the policies of the ANC.”
Kalli Kriel, who is co-ordinating the formation of a Freedom Front youth league, said the organisation decided to participate at Tukkies because it opposes transformation “as it was being advocated at universities.
“Our policy ultimately is the creation of a volkstaat, but because we don’t have that now, we will be more active at universities to preserve their Afrikaans character, which we feel is being threatened.”
NP national youth representative Annelize van Wyk said the involvement of “political parties will result in much more responsibility among students, not to vandalise and trash campuses, because they’ll be directly answerable to senior structures”.
IFP Youth Brigade chair Musa Zondi described direct involvement of political parties in student politics as “a radical departure from the traditional norm, but maybe it is because of recent upheavals on campuses”. Zondi said the move by the ANC, NP and FF could bring South African universities in line with institutions in the United States and Britain, where party politicking is a well-established tradition.
Chris Swepu, national publicity secretary for Azasco, an affiliate of the Azanian People’s Organisation said Azasco was opposed to political parties, particulary those that participated in the country’s government, taking direct part in student politics.
Meanwhile at the University of Stellenbosch, the studenteraad (SR) faces change on a different level.
The Constitution of the Students’ Union prevents students from standing for the SR elections if their academic results are poor. This has meant that black students have rarely stood for the SR. But this year for the first time, black students have been nominated to stand for the SR.
However, one of them, the Sasco branch chair, Xola Tsoba, has been disqualified from taking part in the elections on the basis of his academic record. The other student, also a Sasco candidate, is doing a master’s degree, and did his undergraduate degree at another university.
Xola said students from disadvantaged backgrounds at Stellenbosch suffer because of the Afrikaans language policy on campus, and should not be prevented from taking part in student organisations because of this.
“This is going to happen for a long time unless we challenge the constitution, and the SR will remain the domain of white students.”
Sasco feels this is a human rights issue and that the Stellenbosch constitution does not take into account the new Bill of Rights.
Xola’s disqualification also highlights other problems at Stellenbosch, such as a lack of academic support for educationally disadvantaged students.
Darryl Wright, the present secretary of the SR, said Sasco has been encouraged to take up the issue through all possible channels. He said the new SR will have to review all the election procedures and propose structural changes. “I do believe that access to the SR will be addressed. There are some dynamic leaders from disadvantaged backgrounds who are being prevented from making a contribution.”
At the University of Cape Town (UCT), SRC elections were held this week after a year without an elected body. More than 20 candidates contested the elections. There was also concern that not enough students would vote to reach the 25% poll needed for a legitimate election.
Lack of interest by white students at UCT remained a major problem. Less than a third of the candidates were white, and only a handful attended the candidates’ public presentation of their manifestos.