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“The importance of SRC elections has the same weighting as having general elections. The universities are a microcosm for the rest of the country,” the youth marketing company’s CEO Ronen Aires told News24.
“Just as we would vote for political leaders to run the country – so too would you elect student leaders to represent your interests as students. However, what actually happens can be very different.
“Student organisations are the youth wings of main political parties and they model their behaviour around what they see their parent bodies doing.
“What is going on in the country is reflected in what is going on in our campuses. So, we see with service delivery protests that can be very violent… those same tactics have come to our campuses.”
Springboard for political career
There have been several recent incidents of violence at tertiary institutions, particularly involving the EFF and other parties at the University of Witwatersrand, the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) and the Elsenburg Agricultural Institute in Stellenbosch.
Historically, there had been tension around student fees and debt at universities and every year there were more strikes and protests in the country, Aires said.
“It has just got more violent and more intense and there seems to be a lot more underlying frustration and anger.”
He said that a significant amount of students who run for SRCs want to enter the world of politics.
“It [universities] has become an important battle ground to win,” Aires said.
“It is important for them to get into power as a springboard to launch their political careers.
“There wasn’t much competition around elections before, it was just Sasco affiliates. But now there is a lot more competition, and since there is more competition, they are a lot more aggressive in the way they do the politicking.”
He said students, who were the future leaders of the country, had to show the country how “it should be done”.
“Wouldn’t it be great if they [students] chose a non-violent way to conduct elections. Instead they choose to use intimidation or violence. That is not leading by example, it is just following a bad example.”
