The Bloemfontein Campus SRC elections kickstarted this morning and an announcement of who will take the reins is expected to be made on Thursday. Among those gunning for the presidential seat is the Former #FeesMustFall leader, Asive Dlanjwa. The current SRC President, Sikhululekile Luwaca, says whoever takes the reins should ensure that they represent the best interest of the students.

“We also hope for a leadership that is able to listen. We want a leadership that is able to listen and derive the mandate from the students. We want leaders who are not going to see themselves as individuals, but leaders who are going to believe so much in collective wisdom”.

Luwaca says they are excited about the current elections, which also includes a female contesting for the SRC President. He says this speaks volumes when one considers the current patriarchal system.

He says one of his biggest challenges was that his term was only five months, and he tried his best to represent the best interests of the students. He says the current leadership is hopeful that the successful candidates will continue prioritising the needs of the students.

“One of the programmes we focused on during our five-month’ term was the safety and integration of off-campus students and issues relating to policies. We hope that the next leadership will also try to create a partnership with external stakeholders in launching the SRC fund”.

Luwaca adds they are, however, concerned about the continuity of programmes they have already launched because they only served for a short period of time. He says they are hopeful that the successful candidates will tirelessly work on improving what has been done.

“We are also hopeful that the sense of institutional memory will remain. I don’t want us to reverse the game of students from 2008 when we had our first black SRC President.”

The announcement of the successful SRC candidates will be made on August 31 at 13:00 at the Thakaneng Bridge.

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