In a statement, the SRC explained the procedure: “Posters should be approved by TuksToonbank before they are put up on campus. Should Toonbank be unavailable, the SRC may approve these posters. A copy should also be submitted to Toonbank before any stickers are given out.” Both posters also violated section seven of the poster regulations. This section states that posters may not directly or indirectly be racist, sexist, pornographic, contain hate speech towards religious beliefs or in any way be “detrimental to the image and stature of the University of Pretoria”.
However, when Perdeby spoke to Wenzile Madonsela, EFF Tuks’s Secretary General, she said, “This poster is not an official EFF Tuks poster. It has not been approved by the [executive committee]. Secondly, we as the EFF Tuks do not agree that the posters were racist, [it was] merely bad wording. It still made valid claims about class oppression.” Madonsela explained that EFF Tuks acknowledges “the miscommunication about the meaning behind the posters and breach of [the] University of Pretoria procedure on getting posters approved”.
Michelle Kruger, the SRC member with the societies portfolio, told Perdeby that “there are loopholes in a lot of [the] regulations and that is what [they] are trying to fix this year.” She explained that there has not been enough emphasis on how strict the regulations will be, which is problematic. Kruger said that section seven and eight of the poster regulations need to be expanded on. She acknowledged that the regulations applicable to posters need to be worked on and that “it is not something which we can immediately fix but it is a long-term project.”
The onus is also on students to be aware of regulations when putting up posters and reporting a poster. If a student is unhappy with a poster, they should know which section of the poster regulations it does not comply with in order to report it.
Photos: Marko Svicevic
