Cape Town - Student Representative Council (SRC) elections went ahead at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) on Monday, after an urgent application by student leaders to halt the elections during exams was dismissed.
Students, including those from the Pan Africanist Student Movement of Azania (Pasma) and the South African Students Congress (Sasco) launched an urgent interdict in the Western Cape High Court following a dispute between student leaders and management over the timing of the elections.
Pasma chairperson at CPUT in Bellville, Aphiwe Simelela, said the “premature” decision to hold the elections during this period may affect the turn-out as well as students’ academic performance.
“After the announcement of the second arranged date of the SRC elections, all affiliated structures were called to submit their delegations that will constitute an Electoral Commission (EC).
“Two meetings whose purpose was to constitute the EC collapsed due to unconstitutional measures which were employed by the company that is appointed to host the CPUT SRC elections.
We also noted with concern the constitutionality of the process which was employed by the electoral agency (EA) permitted by the CPUT management on arriving at a decision to conduct these elections without constituting an EC.
The most important factor is the constitutionality of the process, therefore in this case the process was conducted in an unconstitutional manner,” said Simelela.
The urgent application was dismissed, and a date is yet to be set for the matter to be heard in court.
CPUT spokesperson Lauren Kansley said the university welcomed the court’s decision.
“We are pleased to say that SRC elections continued uninterrupted from 3pm (yesterday).
“Essentially CPUT hasn’t had SRC elections since 2019. We are grateful that the over 33 000 students who are eligible to vote will be exercising their rights.
Student representatives have an important role to play in institutional forums and we look forward to welcoming our new cohort soon,” Kansley said.
CPUT SRC president and member of the South African Students Congress (Sasco) Nanga Codana said their main concern was the timing of the elections.
“Academics are the core business of the university and last year the council resolved that elections could not be held in November 2021 because it was an exam period. Why can’t the same principle be applied now?
“The second aspect is the unconstitutionality of the conduct of these elections. All CPUT SRC elections are guided by the SRC constitution and as such until the constitution is amended, no one should act outside the document.
“We are dismayed by the ruling as the judge showed no interest in listening to our stance as students. We feel that as students no justice was served on our behalf.
“However we welcome the decision and understand that this is a process, not an event. We shall follow the necessary steps to get justice as we believe we have a case here,” said Codana.
Cape Times