Sasco’s influence has been waning since the political order changed, reports Joshua Amupadhi
South Africa’s biggest student body, the South African Students’ Congress (Sasco) is sliding in popularity just as it celebrates its fifth anniversary.
Recent campus polls show Sasco is losing its grip on students’ representative councils (SRCs) — turf it had secured over the last few years at most tertiary institutions.
Elections are still taking place on some campuses, but results so far indicate the balance of power is tilting in favour of “born-again” Christians and independents at traditionally black universities. At formerly white, English institutions, such as the University of Cape Town (UCT), the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and the University of Natal (UN) Sasco has lost the majority it held before.
Sasco national president David Makhura said many factors, among them the new political order, have contributed to a change in voting patterns.
While Makhura argues that SRCs were not a fair barometer of whether Sasco was losing student support, he concedes “in some cases Sasco may not be taking seriously the social interests of students, such as ‘bashes’. And that is why when it comes to elections they tend to elect socialites — people who throw parties and are well-liked for that.”
At the University of the North last year Sasco lost heavily to the Student Christian Movement (SCM), winning only five out of 19 seats — after having a majority on the SRC for years. Last month at UCT, Sasco gained only two out of 15 seats with the Christians again doing better.
Makhura is not happy with the situation: “They [SCM] did not fight for democratic SRCs. They did not even dare to participate then [during apartheid] but now they are reaping the benefits. However it is their right to participate.”
He criticised “born-agains” saying they did not have programmes which mattered to students.
“What worries us is that sometimes it [the election of SCM candidates and independents] becomes a setback for the transformation forums,” because those elected were unable to “make effective input”, he said.
Makhura said corruption at some of the formerly black institutions dented Sasco’s image. But he attributed Sasco’s poor showing at institutions like Wits, UN and UCT to the emergence of “elite” black students not affected by issues traditionally taken up by Sasco such as exclusion of students for financial reasons.
Former Sasco national deputy general secretary Sidney Modiba, who is a student at UN’s Durban campus, agreed there were more “elite, affluent African students, including Indians and coloureds. The issues we [Sasco] are raising are more oriented towards the poor.”
But at the University of the Western Cape, where many students are from disadvantaged backgrounds, Sasco took all 12 seats in last month’s elections.