Rasethaba moved on to the SRC’s academic success, stating that the SRC had a 70% success rate with academic appeals with 247 appeals being handed in, and that the SRC had spent over R300 000 on assisting students with registration and textbooks.
Rasethaba then spoke about the Work for Study programme of 2014 saying that it is being examined by the UP legal office before it can be implemented. He also mentioned that UP had made R5 million available for student aid.
Rasethaba said that he was committed to ensuring that the Sunnyside and Arcadia buses would be implemented during the upcoming exams. He further stated that the textured pathways had been approved and they are awaiting its roll-out.
He cited the issue of low participation in the anti-xenophobia week which the SRC held. He ended off with the idea of cultivating UP pride by having students wear UP branded clothing on Thursdays.
Marna de Jager, the SRC treasurer, then gave a financial report from January to April. She reported that the SRC had spent R58 149.98 from January to April, adding that the SRC still has R764 000 left for the remainder of the year. De Jager gave a very short report and points were raised as to why it was not a detailed financial report. De Jager replied by saying that it is not practical to present the full financial report but that it was available at her office.
A vote was then taken to answer the new questions that members had due to the apparent change in the agenda and then to answer the questions which were submitted 48 hours before. The questions session took up more time than the presentations and was quite chaotic. Many questions were asked, including one by the EFF who asked what UP had done to address the issue of the Global One workers and their strike. Many people attending the forum raised the issue of Jhua-Nine Wyrley-Birch, the SRC member with the transformation portfolio, and her involvement in the “Dankie Jan” incident. This incident involved Wyrley-Birch being associated with the hashtag #DankieJan which was thanking Jan van Riebeek. The SRC distanced themselves from the incident through Twitter. Those who raised this issue wanted to know what action had been taken and if anything had been done. In reply to this issue, Wyrley-Birch apologised for the incident.
During the question session deputy director of the Department of Student Affairs (DSA) Dr Willem Jorissen wanted to address the chair, however due to dissatisfaction from forum members the chair did not allow him to speak. This led to discontent among the members and some EFF members, citing the constitution, stated that they wanted Dr Jorissen and Dr Matete Madiba , the director of the DSA, to leave the Student Forum as they are not students of the university.
With the regard to the #TuksSoWhite campaign, Rasethaba stated that the matter was being discussed internally.
The SRC was asked many questions throughout the forum, however they did not answer all of them to the satisfaction of the attendees with many saying that they did not answer their questions sufficiently. Toward the end of the forum, the members of the DSA walked out. Dr Madiba stated that the EFF members had missed the point of the forum because the constitution gives the DSA and their staff the responsibility to oversee the forum. She further said that they walked out so as not to cause further disruptions given that the point about them being there had been focused on unnecessarily.
