Johannesburg — The increasing violence at universities, particularly around Student Representative Council elections, is a sign of the increasing violence on the country’s streets, according to Student Village.

“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 said.

“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.”

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’s 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.”

At the University of Witwatersrand seven students were suspended following a scuffle at a SRC election debate two weeks ago.

The High Court in Johannesburg later set aside the decision. The university had also revoked the recognition of the EFF Student Command on campus, before later reinstating it.

This, however, meant that EFF affiliated students were not allowed to take part in those elections.

Last week EFF members clashed with rival associations at the TUT’s Pretoria West campus ahead of the SRC elections. Party members were there to hear EFF leader Julius Malema speak.

On Saturday, two EFF members were hospitalised after being stabbed at TUT residences.

The party’s TUT Pretoria West branch secretary, Thuto Nthulenyane, told News24 at the time that members of the SA Students Congress (Sasco) were allegedly responsible for the attacks on the two.

Sasco members admitted to slapping and punching the two, but blamed the EFF for prompting the incident by targeting one of its members.

TUT said on Wednesday that Sasco won the elections with three seats on the central SRC, while the EFF had two. The Students Christian Organisation and the Pan Africanist Student Movement of Azania had one seat each. — Sapa

 

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