DA Students to fight for openness at Tuks

The DA Students' Organisation (DASO) at the University of Pretoria (Tuks) is satisfied with the Student Representative Council (SRC) elected by the Student Parliament on Monday.  

The outcome of the election reflects a broad arrangement between various parties to elect an SRC that has the courage to disagree with the university management.

It is also a lesson to the ANC aligned South African Students Congress (SASCO), which last year violently disrupted student governance elections at Tuks and follows a similar agenda of coercion at other universities.

The force of persuasion has effectively trumped the persuasion of force.

But DASO stresses that the arrangement which lead to the election of the new SRC in no way represents an alliance or a coalition, contrary to what has been suggested by other parties.

DASO remains autonomous and will not be cajoled into a false consensus: it retains the right to differ with the majority of the SRC and it will fight fearlessly against closed decision-making, political patronage, tribalism and any other affront to an open educational environment.

The DASO agenda in the Student Parliament, which we believe to be of much greater importance to students than the SRC, is clear and proudly bridges the various ethnic divisions on campus.

DASO aims to turn the Tuks Student Parliament into an open and accessible forum for student debate, information and political consciousness.

The fact is that a negligible number of students participate in Student Parliament elections and even fewer know who their supposed student leaders are and what they do, is the first obstacle to any attempt to improve student life.

The culture of political apathy, and the often closed campus environment which spawns this culture, needs to be overturned by a strong Student Parliament which facilitates critical debate, is accessible to students and keeps SRC members accountable.

To begin with DASO will fight to open the doors of Student Parliament meetings to all students, including the media.

No decisions, whether among students or between students and the university management, involving the interests of students should be made in secret.

DASO looks forward to unleashing a new wave of political awareness, critical thinking and contestation of ideas at Tuks which will defy the closed, tribalist politics which usually characterises the institution.

Statement issued by Cilliers Brink, regional chairperson Democratic Alliance Youth, Gauteng North, October 6 2010

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