South Africa - Pretoria - 26 September 2023. Frustrated EFFSC march to picket against racism at the University of Pretoria. Picture: Oupa Mokoena / African News Agency (ANA)
Johannesburg - The EFF Tshwane region has vowed to legally challenge the disqualification of eight EFF Student Command (EFFSC) candidates who were vying for positions in the representative council at the University of Pretoria (UP).
The looming court action was announced by Obakeng Ramabodu, the EFF Tshwane regional leader, during a picket organised by the student formation against alleged racism at the university.
Ramabodu said that the region would ensure they supported the students in attending to the “disease of racism” within the university.
“Racism in this school is not only with AfriForum; even some of the lectures at this university are very racist. We need to fight because if we lose this battle, it means racism has won.
“They will want to provoke you, but remember the aim is to pass a message that racism must fall in this university. It's not only about the candidates; it's about many things that have been happening in this university that we have been ignoring,” Ramabodu said while addressing students gathered adjacent to Loftus Park.
He urged students not to lose hope and that, as with challenges with other institutions, they would challenge the decision announced by the university.
“We are taking them to court. We have reviewed the decisions of the North West case, and we have won.
We are doing the same with this one; the candidates are winners, and we are leading in this university,” he said.
A member of the Student Command, who requested not to be named for fear of reprisals, said the only information they had was that their candidates had been disqualified because of an Electoral Committee of South Africa (IEC) report.
He said they felt the university had been disingenuous in its actions, as it could have removed the candidates from the ballot before the elections started in order to alert the student group to the problems.
“Why do you wait until we have contested before telling us that our candidates have been disqualified? Even if we complied with the directive to remove all posters on all campuses, after doing that, we thought everything was fine.
“When they say we did not remove the boards, which ones are they referring to because we removed them at the same time? We managed to remove the boards from all the big campuses; can we really fail to remove them from smaller campuses?” he questioned.
Most importantly, however, he said students were unhappy with the delayed release of the election results.
Regarding the EFFSC candidates, university spokesperson Rikus Delport said the Independent Monitoring Body (IMB) had referred the eight candidates to the disciplinary process for alleged contravention of the election rules.
Delport said that the disciplinary process had not yet been concluded and that any allegations against the candidates would be addressed in accordance with the university’s policies.
He said that while both the IEC and the IMB had declared the elections free and fair, the final results of the student elections could only be released after the proper processes had been followed and the final allocation of portfolios had been completed.
“We regret the delay, but our goal is to ensure the democratic election of responsible student representatives who will effectively serve the interests of the student body.”
Delport said the current UP SRC would fulfil its responsibilities until the end of its term in December 2023, with the new cohort’s term to commence in 2024.
The Star
Related Topics: