The Democratic Alliance (DA) Youth is concerned by the seeming violation of electoral procedures at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN) branch of the Democratic Alliance Student Organisation (DASO) has been informed that it will not be allowed to contest the SRC elections today at either the Howard College or Westville campuses, with the reason cited that DASO has not re-applied for recognition from UKZN.
This would be fair if such rules were consistent. According to these rules, the ANC-aligned South African Students Congress (SASCO), should not be allowed to contest the elections either. However, despite SASCO reportedly handing in their applications after the 17:00 deadline on Sunday 17 October, it is still be able to contest the election.
Well, what is fair? Why aren’t the same rules being applied to all student political organizations at UKZN?
There appear to be a number of irregularities and misapplications of the constitution. Indeed, the DA Youth has in its possession a copy of the UKZN constitution which does not specify that an organisation needs to re-apply for recognition to contest SRC elections. However, going further back in this young university’s history, this is not the first time that student political groups have been actively prevented from running for elections. In 2005, according to the student electoral rules of UKZN, only SASCO and UKZN’s chapter of Amnesty International were eligible to run in university wide elections. Amnesty International is an NGO.
The Democratic Alliance has been unsuccessful in contacting the Dean of Students Mrs Deborah Masipa, who refuses to discuss the matter and has referred the matter back to the Student Government Officer. The Assistant Government Officer, however, is believed to be an active member of the Young Communist League, thus compromising the integrity of this office to be impartial. Further to this the Chief Electoral Officers at both Howard Campus and Westville Campus are both active members of the ANCYL and former SRC members. There is thus little evidence that DASO will receive a fair hearing on this matter from these officers . Indeed, the entire system of student elections in place at UKZN is so flawed that the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has already expressed strong procedural concerns.
The DA has received strong opposition from the University to contest previous elections. Disturbingly, UKZN as a whole has in the past, as an institution, shown a bias towards the ANC despite the tradition of universities to distance themselves, as institutions, from partisan politics. Before the 2009 election, the ANCYL had an election rally for Jacob Zuma and the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. MW Makgoba, openly declared the university’s alleged support for Mr. Zuma’s then-candidacy.
The DA will consider placing this issue before the university’s council, seeking redress. Universities should be places where students should be able to express themselves, including for whom they choose to cast their vote- they should not have to be shackled by the election-rigging of an organization uncomfortable with the principles of democracy.
Media Enquiries:
Mbali Ntuli
DA Youth Chairperson
072 118 8556
Aimee Franklin
DA Youth Director
072 232 0127
Craig Kesson
DA Senior Media Officer
082 361 2321
Rihan Kleyn
DA Youth Media and Publicity Chair
084 503 8383
5 Comments to “UKZN: DA Blocked from contesting student elections”
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Jens Eggers says:
It makes sense to fight for equal treatment, but the UKZN DASO branch should still account for the fact that the registration deadline was missed. It’s not very impressive to cry wolf when legitimate procedures have not been followed. What is your explanation for this?
Youth Director says:
Constitutionally societies are not required to re-register yearly – it is a falsely manufactured process that has no basis in any university regulation. This is proven by the fact that societies that have not been present on campus for years, and therefore could not re-register even if they were required to, magically made it onto the registration list whilst DASO was excluded.
Ruan says:
The reason given that the DA missed re-application does not measure up to the UKZN constitution which nowhere states that re-application must be done.
Jens Eggers says:
It seems that there are disputes of fact here as well, since there are conflicting claims from UKZN and DASO about when SASCO registered.
Still DASO has not explained why the deadline was missed. Was it not advertised, or was advertised information misunderstood? Are there regulations beside the UKZN constitution that have a bearing on the electoral process, and that should have been taken into consideration? It’s one thing to question the validity of the UKZN deadline, especially after the fact. I’m asking about DASO’s awareness of it and action about it. How and when did DASO become aware of the need to re-register, why after and not before the deadline?
I’m not suggesting DASO is necessarily wrong, just that the public DASO account of the course of events leaves many questions open and does not inspire my full confidence in DASO’s actions.
I hope that things are cleared up by the court proceedings.
Youth Director says:
The point is that there was no deadline to miss because constitutionally societies are not required to re-register. The university is claiming that DASO missed a deadline that was never legally allowed to be imposed. Added to this, if it was a genuine deadline, why is it that societies that have not existed on campus for some time and still do not exist magically made it onto the list of societies that ‘made the deadline’. Answer: because it was all a dodgy and very illegal tactic by the university to keep DASO off the list. Added to this, the university claim the ANC YL missed their mysterious deadline but they have still been allowed to contest. It is all just the most bizarre situation.