/ 10 September 2007

Pretoria student fails in SRC bid

The present vice-chairperson of the University of Pretoria’s student representative council (SRC), Cobus van der Linde, will not be a candidate in Tuesday’s elections for next year’s SRC.

Pretoria High Court judge Lettie Malopa on Monday dismissed Van der Linde’s urgent application to remain on the candidates list.

Van der Linde, a Freedom Front Plus member, was chosen as the vice-president of the SRC in March, but only after obtaining a court order compelling the university to allow him to be a candidate.

On Monday he was back in court, claiming the university was attempting to preclude him from being a candidate. He claimed a remark by the head of the department of agriculture and economics, Professor JF Kirsten, that he was ”not a serious student” had prompted the university to disqualify him.

Van der Linde said in an affidavit he had ”very real reason” to believe the principal of the university and Kirsten were acting in bad faith.

He said the university had informed him there might be a problem with his candidacy, but nevertheless allowed him to take part in all activities concerning the election. His name was also in the student newspaper and on posters on the campus and appeared on ballot papers.

He claimed there was no clause in the constitution of the SRC to disqualify him and the university’s claims that he did not have an average of above 60% were not relevant as he only enrolled in June and had obtained the required marks in 2006.

He however undertook to resign from the SRC if a future review application against the university did not succeed.

The university opposed Van der Linde’s application, saying he had abandoned his undergraduate studies for a B.Com degree after only obtaining an average of 33% for the first semester.

He thereafter registered for advanced agriculture studies, but abandoned this as well and then registered for three modules for an honours degree, where the marks made available on Monday showed that he had an average of 35%, resulting in him not qualifying as a candidate.

Van der Linde, who was awarded a BSc in agriculture degree in April this year, was at the forefront of a battle with the university about the unavailability of certain courses in Afrikaans. – Sapa