Despite shade thrown PYA stays winning

Nompendulo Mkatshwa and the various members of the Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA) were officially constituted despite false claims that Mkatshwa was not elected as president by branch general meeting (BGM).

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Nompendulo Mkatshwa remains SRC president, despite false claims by individuals within PYA BGM that she wasn’t.         Photo: Riante Naidoo

Friday saw the official constituting of the Wits SRC of 2016, despite a false allegation that a PYA BGM was opposed to the selection of Nompendulo Mkatshwa as president.

A media statement was circulated on Friday morning on PYA letterhead stating that the BGM did not elect Mkatshwa as president, later it was found to be a false claim.

Mkatshwa told Wits Vuvuzela that it was not PYA BGM who made those allegations but in fact ‘opportunistic individuals’ who decided to step outside of the democratic electoral process.

“Those are just individuals, that’s not PYA, those are opportunistic individuals who are just trying to disorganise the organisation, and we’re not going to allow that thing to happen,” said Mkatshwa.

Mkatshwa stressed that the PYA deals with matters internally, and will deal with this particular matter. She said that any individuals who spoke outside of the BGM did not want to respect democratic centralism.

“Being bestowed with the responsibility of leading students is the most humbling thing.”

On Thursday morning the PYA announced the various portfolio members of the SRC, and yesterday at 5pm the new members were officially sworn in.

Mkatshwa told Wits Vuvuzela about how she feels about being elected as president, “Being bestowed with the responsibility of leading students is the most humbling thing that anyone can go through or experience.”

On her excitement, “I’m humbled, I think it hasn’t sunk in yet,” describes Mkatshwa.  The meeting which began at 6pm on Wednesday and ended at 4:30am on Thursday morning was an intense and grueling one.

Former SRC president Mcebo Dlamini noted on his Facebook page that it was a very strenuous process.

Other elected members include deputy president Motheo Brodie, secretary general Fasiha Hassan, deputy secretary general Thabo Boom and treasurer general Karabo Marutha.

Mkatshwa remains confident with her backing, “We have four organisations that will back us up in anything that we do, and we will deliver as the PYA and the SRC.”

“We’re not perfect,” said Mkatshwa. “We will stumble here and there and we will admit where we have stumbled, but at the end of the day we will do our utmost best to have the interest of students being put first.”

Wits distances itself from review of Dlamini’s guilty verdict

Wits University has responded to requests from the Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA), and the former Student Representative Council (SRC) president, Mcebo Dlamini, to speed up the process of review of Dlamini’s case.   

Wits University has distanced itself from the review of the guilty verdict on charges of misconduct against former Student Representative Council (SRC) president, Mcebo Dlamini. This is according to a letter sent to the Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA) from the office of the Wits vice chancellor Professor Adam Habib, which Wits Vuvuzela has seen.

Habib was responding to calls made by the PYA during a march on main campus on Monday, May 11. One of the demands made by the group was that the review of Dlamini’s case be moved to this Friday, May 15.

Speaking to Wits Vuvuzela, Wits University spokesperson Shirona Patel said the review is being handled by an “independent panel” and the university will distance itself from the actual process.

Patel told Wits Vuvuzela that “it is not up to the Legal Office to make such a decision,” but the review committee. Patel could not say who constituted the review committee.

In the letter sent from Habib’s office, the university says it supports the request to speed up the process of the review and adds that “a request to this effect has already been made to the Chair of the Review Committee”. It further states that “if the Review Committee finds in favour of Mr Dlamini, he will be reinstated as SRC President”.

Dlamini was recalled as President on May 4, following an announcement from the vice chancellor’s office. Earlier this year, the former SRC president was found guilty of misconduct but allowed to remain in his position by the vice chancellor pending a review of the case.

Last week, though, the vice chancellor announced that he was reversing this decision as it appeared to Habib, that Dlamini was intentionally delaying the review process.

Dlamini has said that his legal team has contacted the Wits Legal Office to demand that the review of his case be held by this Friday.

He told Wits Vuvuzela that it was now the university who was delaying the date of his review and with exams in less than a month, he would like to “exonerate” himself and prepare for his exams.