Dear Honourable VCs Dr Prins Nevhutali and Prof V. Mazwi-Tanga Firstly on behalf of the South African Students Congress Branch in Cape Town Campus I would like to welcome the new Vice Chancellor Dr Prins Nevhutalu to the university as we have hope as the branch that CPUT will indeed enter a phase of real Transformation and not lame transformation of replacing a White with a Black person but transformation that speaks on many issues but centrally reaching a state where our university curriculum directly responds to the current challenges of South Africa economically and otherwise; our commitment in him is informed by his continuous proven commitment in advocating for transformation in the different institutions he has worked in. We write this communiqué as an organisation to iron out some of our dissatisfactions in the delay of SRC elections, also pointing out what we believe is the cause of such which: On incompetency of the Dean of Students: Ms Cora Motale It is very sub-standard that as an organisation we have continuously raised the matter of the dean’s incompetency proven by the manner in which she has always dealt with student issues and what saddens us as students is the reality that the university continues to avoid all the matters we have raised about her. Today the continuous rumour of the Dean being seen in private places with and bribed by the DA to unconstitutionally affiliate DASO to be a recognised structure and there of force it to contest SRC elections can be confirmed, she has successfully done this by continuously created constitutional confusions in terms of the Electoral Guidelines that are to be used and after advising DA to take the university to court and making the case of DASO legitimate when it is not; which she also knew that ultimately this will result to a point where the student governance is weakened (which this has always been her struggle). We have also noted her deliberate efforts to defy the views of SASCO branches in relation to many issues that have to do with elections (and in this SASCO branches have also communicated with Prof Tanga but surprisingly she also did not respond to any); she (dean) therefore does this and want to entertain external structures who claim to represent the views of SASCO branches hence the emergence of attorneys writing to the University claiming to represent us when that is not the case. It is evidently clear that we will never have free, fair and smoothly ran SRC Elections in CPUT because of the Dean whom clearly does not have an interest of student governance and student issues in particular; hence we believe that with her in that office the vision of the university to be a student centeredness university is far from being a dream. On the Tender of Transport As an organisation we also feel that it can’t be left unsaid that the issue of Transport Tender is part of the actual reasons why SRC elections get to be postponed now and again; it is not a secret that many managers in our university including the Dean of Students have direct interest on this tender because of the relation which other managers have with this service providers, others through their husbands. We believe that their aim is to weaken student governance so that there would be an absence of a critical voice in terms of the type of transport system students would want; also creating the continuous confusion in SRC elections to shift the focus of SASCO because they know that we are always critical in corrupt tendencies that result in this process. If the tender issue was to be finalised this Sunday I swear elections would be this Monday, because part of delaying elections is a strategy of avoiding new student leadership on board since they might have a different view from the one that the dean has been going around buying. The only way we can have elections taking place is by making the Tender committee sit only when there’s new student governance with no bought interests or else this tender issue must just be done overnight so that students can go and vote. Conclusion We therefore as SASCO Cape Town Campus call upon your office in the name of our fallen struggle heroes and heroines who fought for these governance structures to be there and their constituency to vote for them; we call for your office to ensure that those efforts are not defied by CPUT in a democratic country hence you need to ensure that students are given an opportunity to VOTE (that will obviously happen if CPUT and your office adheres to the basic principles of democracy). We also urge your office to postpone any engagements of tender for this clearly has a direct impact in the discrepancies that we have in these elections; in the name of trying to make sure that we have a credible process of SRC elections by next week before Examinations and as SASCO we need to state it that we want SRC Elections be it DASO will contest or not, but what is important is for students to be given the opportunity to vote for their preferred student leadership. (We also want to initiate a discussion of SRC members not seating in meetings that have to do with tender as this is our National Resolution) We also request that your office through the University’s legal team start to investigate the interest and involvement of many university managers in this tender of transport starting with the Dean of Students, Mr Mpambani, Mr Manise and do not leave out SRC members that are involved in the decision making the tender committee, finance committee and other committees. We ask this because we strongly believe that people have promised different companies knowing that they will receive millions in return hence they are willing to destabilize all university critical processes like SRC Elections in favour of this Tender process. Lastly 3 questions that we should ask ourselves. Why the dean of students continues to use new annexure of the SRC constitution even when advised by the registry office not to use them. Why Daso was forcibly affiliated via Mancom. Why daso is contesting elections despite the constitution clause that restrict any structure that has not existed for over 6 months to contest for elections. Why is she risking her job by doing all this foreign things against the institution? We hope that because of the assertion we have made about Dr Prins Nevhutalu in our opening remarks, there will be a response to this call both in content and action as we believe that this is for the benefit of not only students but also the University; for we know that SRCs are also of benefit to the university in terms of coordinating engagements between students and management. “Those who corrupt the public mind are just as evil as those who steal from the public purse”. Adlai E. Stevenson Yours in “credible” student governance Mesuli Kama SASCO Cape Town Campus Elections Team NB: This communiqué is written in consultation with the Branch Chairperson and Secretary hence copied in the email.
Posted on: Thu, 10 Oct 2013 08:31:35 +0000
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