The August demonstrations featured various student leaders which included SRC members, faculty house chairpersons, executive committee members, and independent candidates contesting the increase on the 2023 first payment amount. However, DASO (the DA Student Organisation) was the only political organisation who did not participate in any of the demonstrations.
DASO’s absence at the demonstrations
When asked about their absence, Shaina Moses, the chairperson of DASO, said that “DASO does not believe in disrupting class”. She continued, “we do believe that each student has the right to an education […]. If the protesters are fighting for students to be educated, then we have the opportunity right now. DASO does understand the grievances of all the students […]. Our opposition, their approach is to protest. However, DASO does not believe that a protest will rectify the situation at hand, but that does not mean that because DASO isn’t partaking in the protest that we do not prioritise the situation. We just handle it in a very different manner.”
The petition
DASO’s approach to the increase was made clear on 25 August, when several students received an SMS from DASO that read: “Stop the shutdown! DASO has a solution for you. Follow the link to sign DASO’s registration fee petition.”
The link provided in the text messages led to a Google document which read: “The Democratic Alliance Student Organisation calls upon the University of Pretoria [management] to engage DASO UP on the proposed 2023 Registration Fee Increase.” This petition stated that DASO had two proposals, namely that “University of Pretoria management [re-enters] into talks with student structures to discuss the proposed registration fee increase” and, in light of the “major financial impacts Covid-19 had on many families”, that “University of Pretoria management creates a process to allow academically deserving students to apply for exemptions to the registration fee increase”.
However, it was unclear how DASO got a hold of the contact information of these students, to be able to send out this petition.
The text
When asked how DASO received the contact information of the students who received this message, Moses responded that it was from “many of [their] members who are registered, of course”. However, a number of students who received this message were not registered DASO members. One student confirmed that they were previously registered with DASO; while several other students confirmed that although they knew members in DASO they had never registered themselves. Some students even confirmed that they were not registered voters or South African citizens (with and without permanent residence) and thus would not appear on the voter’s roll. Another student confirmed that they had never been registered with the organisation, nor, to their recollection, had they ever had any contact with anyone who was registered with DASO. Similarly, first-year law student Adelle Jansen said, “I have never had any interactions with them before, but I just suddenly received a message from them, and I didn’t even know who they were until I asked some people about it.” So, it is unclear how DASO managed to obtain the cell phone numbers of so many students.
PDBY asked DASO how they obtained the contact information of students, not registered with DASO. Moses asked if these students had verified that they were not registered members. After this was answered in the affirmative, she responded, “interesting […]”. Upon being asked if she knew how this could have happened, Moses replied, “no, I was not really in charge of that department, so I’d have to verify with […] our members who were.”
A violation of POPI?
The allegations levelled concerning the way DASO obtained the contact details of students indicate a potential violation of UP’s Constitution for Student Governance (CSG). In terms of section 7 of the CSG, “every Student has the right to confidentiality of his/her University records, and no information contained in such records may be disclosed without the permission of the Student in question”. A student’s contact details would fall within the ambit of this section.
Furthermore, this matter could also constitute a potential violation of the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPI), specifically sections 5, 11, and 12 of the Act. Additionally, this is also a potential violation of section 14 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, which states that everyone has the right to privacy, including the right not to have “the privacy of their communications infringed”. Tarik Lalla, the secretary general of the SRC, said, “obviously we’re well aware of the fact that [students who were not registered with DASO and received this message is a] violation of the POPI Act, […] where they get the numbers from”.
PDBY reached out to the Constitutional Tribunal on 26 August for an advisory opinion on whether these messages did violate the aforementioned sections, but initially they did not deem the matter to be particularly urgent.
However, PDBY informed DASO that the way in which the message was sent out to students was potentially a violation of the sections outlined above, but DASO declined to give comment on the matter. Despite this information, the link to the Google document contained in the text message remained operational. Furthermore, Moses uploaded a story promoting the link to the petition on her Instagram account after she was made aware that a number of students, who were not members of the organisation, received the message. Additionally, Moses explicitly stated that she would verify whether students who were not part of DASO received this message and get back to PDBY on the matter. Moses had not verified this and gotten back to PDBY, at the time of print. DASO members Nikita Scoble, who is running for the SRC’s marketing, media, and communications profile, and Christo Pretorius, who is running for the SRC secretary general profile, also declined to give comment on the matter.
These developments are contrasted by a similar set of facts which preceded them in 2021 where Jacobs allegedly reported his opponent in the run for chairperson of House Humanities, Captain Shongwe, for sending campaign messages to a number of Humanities students. Shongwe obtained these numbers from module groups and was subsequently disqualified. Upon being questioned regarding this matter, Shongwe also revealed that Jacobs messaged him via Whatsapp as part of his own campaign in 2021. Thus, Jacobs used a means similar to Shongwe to promote himself. When PDBY reached out to Jacobs seeking comment on this, Jacobs offered no comment.
Finally, at his SRC presidential manifesto presentation, Jacobs spoke on the lawfulness of DASO’s communication. Relying on section 31 of POPI Jacobs said, “[It] allows for political parties to access the data of any voter that is on the voters roll in South Africa, so as far I’m concerned that’s completely legal.” On reading, section 31 of POPI, the Act excludes “institutions founded on political principles” from the general prohibition against processing a data subject’s personal information if they: are a member or employee; or where it is necessary for founding the party; or for a national or municipal election or campaigning for a political election or cause. Section 31 takes it a step further, in saying that the information that these institutions may process cannot be supplied to a third party.
In light of this, Jacobs’ reply offered at the manifesto is not reflective of the content within section 31. However, DASO could only be acting in accordance with section 31 if there was no third party involved to which they either: supplied the information from or to. After several attempts to reach DASO to confirm the aforementioned, DASO has declined to give comment directly addressing this question.
I’m Kirsten, a law student who loves writing, making spreadsheets and consuming an unhealthy amount of caffeine.
I love writing about student issues and current events.
Oh my this is awkward. Having to tell you who I am is a whole ordeal because I am still trying to figure that out myself lol. The most I know at this point is that, I am an unhinged hillbilly from a small town in Northern Kwa-Zulu Natal; My first love had “Petronella” as a middle name (gross right?); I will on occasion get dressed in a onesie, using my red blankie as a cape to live out my fantasy of being the caped crusader of justice: Captain Tanuki; Finally, I have an obsession with owls that should get its own section in the DSM-V. On that owl thing, I feel like in one of my many past lives as a shrew somewhere in the world, I met my end to one of those majestic birds and that specific bird reincarnated as my first love who, at the time of writing, has not killed me…yet! Talk about a circle of life, neh. My goals? Well right now, I have but one very simple goal: to be the best human I can possibly be. Achieving that would make a hillbilly like me, a better person and growth is always good. My time at the paper has made sure I stay on this path. Should a lost soul wanting to know about the paper, stumbles across this bio, I want you to know that I will totally be a radically different person in the best way possible. Who knows, I might have reincarnated as an owl, by then.