A group of students handed over a memorandum to the University of the Free State (UFS) on Wednesday in protest against ”corrupt” student representative council [SRC] elections.
”The process in which the SRC elections were conducted was corrupt,” read the memorandum by the South African Students’ Congress (Sasco).
The Sasco students also demanded that the UFS postpone its replacement policy, and that the high failure rate of black students be investigated. They were protesting against a ”dead transformation plan”.
The memorandum was handed to the university’s dean of student affairs, Natie Luyt, in Bloemfontein on Wednesday morning.
The Freedom Front Plus Kovsies (FF+) recently won the SRC elections on the main campus (Bloemfontein) with an overwhelming majority.
UFS spokesperson Anton Fisher said the university’s management was committed to a quality education for all students at the UFS.
”The management is also committed to the transformation of the campus and to creating a non-racial, multilingual and multicultural student life.”
Fisher said certain processes are already in place to address some of the issues raised by the students — such as a transformation plan task team, which is drafting the university’s comprehensive transformation plan.
He said the university will respond to the memorandum through the appropriate channels that exist on campus to communicate with all students.
The university’s management also thanked the Sasco members for the ”peaceful and non-violent” way the protest march was conducted.
Free State FF+ youth leader Jan van Niekerk said the march is an indication that the African National Congress’s youth organisation — Sasco — does not understand democracy.
”If the ANC wins then its democracy, but when another party wins they view it as undemocratic,” he said. — Sapa