Cape Town - The ANC-aligned South African Students’ Congress (Sasco) has described its defeat to the DA in student elections at Fort Hare university as a “clear wake-up call”.
This week, the DA Students’ Organisation (Daso) came out tops in the elections for the first time at the historic formerly black university in the Eastern Cape, taking over control of the student representative council from Sasco.
The university in Alice has a student population of about 10 000.
It is the alma mater of many politicians who steered independence movements in their countries, including Nelson Mandela, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and former head of the PAC, Robert Sobukwe.
Daso won with 52.5 percent of the vote, up from 20.5 percent in last year’s Student Representative Council (SRC) elections.
In last year’s general elections, the ANC won Nkonkobe, the district within which the main campus of Fort Hare falls, with 84 percent of the vote.
On his Facebook page, Sasco president Ntuthuko Makhombothi said the DA’s win showed Sasco had to again “win the hearts and minds of students”.
“Our comrades in Fort Hare have no choice but to dry their eyes and fight back.
Our structure across the country must realise our opponents are well organised, we must beat them on the ground,” Makhombothi said.
DA Youth leader Yusuf Cassim said the DA won because it fought for better student conditions and increased access.
“This historic win is testament to the manner in which the DA has prioritised students’ issues on campus,” he said.
Cassim said the Daso-governed SRC would fight against “exploitative treatment” of students on government loans, the lack of meal allowances, “squalid, exploitative residences” and large fee hikes.
Weekend Argus