We did not pay Twitter influencers – PYA

by | Mar 8, 2019 | Featured 1

THE Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA) and African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) have denied allegations that they paid social media personalities to influence the 2018 Student Representative Council (SRC) elections.
The allegations emerged in an amaBhungane report published on Friday, March 1, which claimed that social media personalities, paid to tweet promotional content and known as ‘influencers’, may have been employed to sway elections in the ANC’s favour.

The report listed last year’s Wits SRC elections as a possible case. The 2018 elections resulted in the PYA winning 12 out of the 13 SRC seats.

The report listed several social media influencers including Wits alumnus Zukhanye Ncapayi, a YouTube and Twitter personality with more than 19 000 followers.

Ncapayi’s Twitter account indicates that on October 16, 2018, she tweeted in support of the PYA and urged her followers to follow suit.  She tweeted that she had voted for the PYA, even though according to her LinkedIn profile she graduated in 2017, making her ineligible to vote in the 2018 SRC elections.

Zukhanye Ncapayi tweeted on October 16, 2018, that she was voting for the Wits PYA in the 2018 SRC elections.                        Photo: Naledi Mashishi

A screenshot emerged on social media during the 2018 SRC campaign of what appeared to be a post by well-known social media influencer, and Ncapayi’s boyfriend and business partner, Karabo Motsoane, in a Wits campaign WhatsApp group: “Afternoon guys. So as some of you might know, SRC elections are underway. And PYA are asking for us to. Promote gor the for 3 days. They’re paying R100 a day.”

The Wits PYA queried the authenticity of the WhatsApp screenshot and the time and tweeted a statement that read: “We would like to clarify that the below screenshot and alleged campaign/WhatsApp group have not been commissioned, endorsed or agreed to by the PYA.”

SRC deputy-president Nkateko Muloiwa said it would have been impossible for the Wits PYA to have paid any social media influencer to tweet in support of the party.

“We cannot get access to cash, as everything has to be approved by the internal financial structures of the university.

“We never paid anyone, and anyone who says otherwise is living in a fool’s paradise,” he told Wits Vuvuzela.

Final-year BA student and Wits EFF member, Duma Nkabinde, said that he found claims that there were paid influencers believable.

“I’m convinced that, yes, the PYA uses characters who seem apolitical on their social networks but have a large following, to influence young people in spaces of higher learning,” he told Wits Vuvuzela.

FEATURED IMAGE: Wits PYA members who were voted onto the SRC in the 2018 elections have denied that they paid social media influencers to swing votes in their favor.
Photo: Provided

 

Private security set to remain on campus indefinitely

by | Feb 26, 2019 | Featured 1

By Naledi Mashishi

Private security personnel are set to remain at Wits University indefinitely as the institution says it has no immediate plans to remove them.

The guards, who have been outsourced from Johannesburg-based security company, Diligence Services Group, have been on Wits campuses since the first week of February after fees-related protest action started on February 4, and have remained at the university for almost two weeks after the protests ended on February 7.

“The University assesses the national and local higher education context and deploys security accordingly. As the need for the security personnel diminishes, so will their presence on campus be reduced,” said Buhle Zuma, Wits University spokesperson.

Wits Student Representative Council (SRC) deputy president Nkateko Muloiwa says that the SRC’s stance is that the university must remove all private security that is on campus.
“We don’t want private security to stay on campus and we have relayed that to management,” Muloiwa told Wits Vuvuzela.

He says that by continuing to keep private security on campus, “it is quite clear that [the university management] somehow want to provoke students and they’ve embarked on wasteful expenditure.”
According to their website, Diligence Services Group has provided private security to Wits University during student protests over the last three years.

In a testimonial published on their website, Wits director of protection services Mokgawa Kobe wrote that, “The company was very instrumental in assisting the university to manage the protest actions since January 2016.”

Students ended their protest action after Wits management agreed to allow some students with historical debt to register.

FEATURED IMAGE:  Private security personnel block protesters.
Photo: Phumi Ramalepe

RELATED ARTICLES:

Deadline looming for Witsies looking to graduate in March

by | Feb 20, 2019 | Featured 1

By Onke Ngcuka and Phumi Ramalepe

Students looking to participate in March graduation ceremonies have until 3pm on Wednesday February, 20 to settle their outstanding fees. Those students with debt of less than R15 000 are also able to sign Acknowledgement of Debt (AOD) in order to secure a place in the graduation ceremonies which run from March 20 to March 29.

This is according to fees officer Sihaam Mahomed who added that, “Once you sign the AOD, there’s no interest. You can pay off the fees monthly on a payment plan designed for each student. So you’re signing off to no interest”.

BAccSci graduate Mxolisi Ndlovu who has outstanding fees said that he managed to sign the AOD on Tuesday, February 19.

“I owe R4 100. I was on a bursary but … I owed R68 000 and my bursary only covered R60 000. I paid the other amount by myself and now I’m left with R4 100,” Ndlovu said. Mohamed said that some students are also able to secure their graduation spots by presenting a letter to the Wits Fees Office.

“If you have a letter saying that the bursary will pay the fees, then you can come with that letter and you will be able to graduate,” Mahomed said.

“If you are unable to pay the fees, you cannot graduate. If you are on NSFAS, we tell you to contact NSFAS and then go to Financial Aid and ask for a letter with some sort of proof that they (NSFAS) will pay,” he added.

BSc Geologoy graduate told Wits Vuvuzela, “I have managed to sign the AOD and my fees are approximately R18 223. I was funded by NSFAS and went [to the Financial Aid and Scholarships office] yesterday and [NSFAS] said they would pay the full amount. Now I’m gonna be able to graduate”.

The process of allowing students to sign an AOD started on Monday, February11.