On 27 July, the SRC together with the Constitutional Tribunal held its quarterly student forum as mandated by the Constitution for Student Governance (CSG) at 17:30 in the Thuto 1-1 lecture hall on UP’s Hatfield campus. However, the proceedings were disrupted by the Economic Freedom Fighter Student Command (EFFSC) through a series of acts including disorderly conduct, repetitive points of order, and intimidation. As a consequence of the disruptive activities of the EFFSC, the student forum could not continue and thus collapsed.
Why does Student Forum matter?
Section 43 of the CSG mandates that a quarterly student forum must be held and requires leaders from various student bodies to attend the student forum where matters concerning student life and activities are addressed. In other words, the student forum acts as an accountability mechanism that ensures students and the SRC have a platform to engage with one another on matters concerning students.
Due to this constitutional duty, the executive leadership of various student organisations, ranging from residences and day houses to faculty houses and an amalgamation of other societies, attended the student forum. However, their constitutional mandate was not the sole reason for their attendance, as EBIT Faculty House executive committee member Varnu Govender would explain: “I am here to hold the SRC accountable concerning the registration fee increase that occurred without their consultation. I am behind mass mobilisation and protest action, but where is the SRC on this matter?” In addition, Chairperson of Vividus Day House Cherene Short’s attendance to the forum wasdue to curiousity, as she stated, “I am here to find out what’s going on and see how the SRC operates.”
On a more poignant basis House Ukuthula’s Darryl Phillips explained, “We are here to support the residences ex officio, since student leadership is so politicised. We want to make sure that there’s a friendly face in the crowd.” Furthermore, Phillips raised the important issue of transgender accessibility and representation within the university and residences as a point of contention they would have wished to address.
Notwithstanding what would later ensue, the EFFSC stated in an Instagram post, dated 25 July, that its mandate at student forum was to “hold the SRC accountable on 2023 fees increase enabled by the SRC, [as well as matters of] academic exclusions, residence placement, scrapping on residence levy, funding for international students, and several other related issues”. Thus, this student forum mattered for the simple reason that important issues directly affecting the student body of UP were slated to be discussed.
The disruptions
Despite, student forum existing in a dual capacity as a consultative and accountability mechanism, it can be viewed as a quasi-parliamentary body, with the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Tribunal vaguely mirroring the role of the Speaker of the House.
Proceedings were supposed to begin with the quarterly reports from members of the SRC in accordance with section 43(2) of the CSG, when members of the EFFSC disrupted the order of proceedings by abusing rule 11 of the rules for student forum. This rule allows for members in attendance to raise a point of order on a rule within the rules for student forum. The initial point of order raised by the EFFSC was on the constitutionality of the forum’s composition, seeing as members of the Department of Student Affairs (DSA), i.e. university staff, were in attendance. According to the EFFSC, this was in violation of the CSG because the event is a “student” forum.
In response to this point of order, the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Tribunal explained that the forum was a public forum and nothing within the CSG or rules for the student forum barred members of the public from attending. Nonetheless, the members of the EFFSC continued to hammer on this point, eventually causing the members of the DSA in attendance to exit the venue. However, things would go beyond the point of no return when matters concerning access to the venue were raised.
Access to the venue
In order to access the venue, students and members of the university in attendance were required to scan their student cards at a security checkpoint outside the venue. Compared to previous student forums held this year, this is rather new phenomenon. On the reasoning behind this measure, the chief justice only stated, “In [a written response] I will be able to elucidate more fully on this matter […] everything occurs within rules and standards for uniformity, and we also look at foreseeability”.
However, despite this measure members of the EFFSC forced their way into the venue, chanting and singing without scanning their student cards, which raises questions as to whether the members present were in fact UP. In spite of this, members in attendance from the EFFSC and SASCO raised the scanning of student cards as a matter of concern in a series of points of order. They upheld that the act of scanning student cards infringed on a students’ ability to access the forum.
Following this line of questioning and deliberation between the chief justice and members of the SRC, the chief justice announced that security would enter the venue and scan the student cards of all members present. This set in motion a series of disruptions, particularly from the EFFSC, that eventually led to the collapse of the student forum.
The chief justice was not willing to comment further on this matter and asserted that her response would come in due time after consideration of the events as they had unfolded that evening.
This is a developing story.
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