Christmas will come early for Wits SRC members when the university pays members for rendering their services to students.

A stipend committee made up of SRC president Sibulele Mgudlwa, SRC treasurer Justice Nkomo, a student development and leadership unit representative and the dean of students will determine how much the SRC members deserve. Mgudlwa said the rating criteria changed from year to year.

[pullquote]Some members “received as much as R8 000” while other unlucky members received “zilch”[/pullquote]The amount varied depending on how effective an SRC member was in implementing their programmes during the year.
“Nonetheless standard criteria would include how many portfolio objectives each member achieved, attendance of SRC events and meetings; conduct and discipline,” Mgudlwa said.

Each year all SRC members had a meeting in which they drafted criteria. It was then the duty of the stipend committee to determine the remuneration of each member. It would be difficult to estimate the average amount that a member could receive, he said. However, a former SRC member, who asked to remain anonymous, said last year some members “received as much as R8 000” while other unlucky members received “zilch”.

Mgudlwa stressed that members of the SRC should not worry as this year’s SRC had not yet sat down to discuss the 2013 stipends. He said the current SRC would hold a meeting in the coming weeks to decide the amounts and rules surrounding the 2013 stipends. “All could change. For example the current SRC could decide that no one receives more than R5 000 or a change in criteria.”

The university funds these stipends, which are included in the university’s budget each year. Last year the university set aside a little more than R60 000 for the SRC stipends.