#HabibsReferendum was all the rage on Twitter last night.
Wits University has taken a decision to run a poll to gauge support to reopen the university by next week. The SRC (Student Representatives Council) have openly rejected the idea and last night members of the SRC and supporters of Fees Must Fall (#FMF), took to Twitter to ridicule the idea and the Wits vice chancellor Professor Adam Habib.
Former SRC president, Mcebo Dlamini told the SABC yesterday that the #FMF movement are rejecting the referendum because it is unfair and non-transparent. Dlamini says that a student assembly would be the most democratic way to address the differences between students and their feelings about resuming the academic programme.
Since management released a statement about the poll the hashtag #HabibsReferendum circulated on Twitter ranging from sarcastic responses to the more humorous ones.
Since Wits has decided that referendums are the most accurate way to gauge student’s opinions, here is a thread of polls. #HabibsReferendum
— Wits SRC (@WitsSRC) September 27, 2016
Some of the polls as tweeted by the account:
— Wits SRC (@WitsSRC) September 27, 2016
— Wits SRC (@WitsSRC) September 27, 2016
— Wits SRC (@WitsSRC) September 27, 2016
This was but the response from SRC, but students against the option to resume academic programmes on Monday had more to ask.
Can we vote on the case of the sudden entrance fee at Engineer’s Breakfast? #HabibsReferendum
— Tiefling (@Mavumavu91) September 27, 2016
Can we vote on which picture of him to use on his “Ask the VC” posters?; twitter-cards=”hidden” #habibsreferendum
— Angela BaeVis* (@PearlPillay) September 27, 2016
@AdHabb Can we also vote to not have our moms and dads fired for eating Vienna and Cheese #HabibsReferendum twitter-cards=”hidden”#Sizzlers
— Zikhona Mphongoshe (@zeeksido) September 27, 2016
The tribe has spoken! #HabibsReferendum twitter-cards=”hidden”pic.twitter.com/gzaPRc0Th7
— Irfaan Mangera (@IrfaanMangera) September 27, 2016
According to a statement released by the university,
“The University will run an electronic poll on Thursday using text messages (SMSs) for students and via a website link for staff. The poll will open at 07:00 and close at 16:00. It will be anonymous and the data will feed straight into a database. The IEC has been requested to oversee the process to ensure that the results can be independently verified.”