Current SRC members Tasneem Essop, Katleho Sera and Sibulele Mgudlewa . The new SRC will start their term in November. Photo: Nokuthula Manyathi
THE SRC nomination process has begun and the two biggest political organisations at Wits will be among those facing off to lead the university’s students.
Nominations for new SRC members opened on July 30 and will close on August 6 at 3pm. Any student can be a candidate provided they get the required 25 signatures from fellow students who support their nomination. The signatures must then be taken to the Student Development and Leadership Unit offices in the Matrix.
SA Student Congress president (Sasco) Tshepo Lethea said the ANC Youth League, Muslim Student Association and Sasco will be running together under the banner of the Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA). Democratic Alliance Student Organisation (Daso) president Luyolo Mphiti said his party would be competing strongly in the elections and he intended to become SRC president.
Students must apply for their candidacy and gather signatures as individuals. However, many students also run under the banner of larger political organisations following an internal nomination process by those parties.
Both PYA and Daso said their internal nomination processes were yet to begin. Mphiti said Daso’s electoral college for screening candidates had only just opened. He said they were under the assumption that the nomination season will be moved to September but they would still be ready by Tuesday deadline.
Lethea said they had not yet begun nominating PYA candidates: “We don’t have candidates as yet but by Tuesday we will be ready.”He said their development committee, which was still to be chosen, would be responsible for screening the members.According to Lethea the development committee is made up of “old and experienced” students who “know what they are talking about”.
Lethea said the committee will be looking for many things in their candidates including team chemistry: “We need to see if those comrades will be able to work together to complete the mandate given to them.”
Mphiti said the qualities Daso was looking for in its candidates were, among other things, “a set of principles consistent with DA policies”.
The elections will be held on August 27, 28 and 29.
