University of Zululand.
Mystery surrounds how a group of mainly Young Communist League (YCL) students could afford to approach the Durban High Court to interdict the outcome of the controversial University of Zululand 2016 SRC election results.
In a Facebook post dated November 3, 2016, the university announced it had “been issued with a court order” pending the finalisation of the proceedings for a review.
Then dean of students N Gawe and the elections committee were “interdicted and restrained from formally constituting the newly elected members of the SRC; the chief electoral officer … interdicted and restrained from confirming the appointment of newly elected SRC members”.
The elected office-bearers, cited as respondents, were “interdicted and restrained from assuming office”, with the university appealing “to all parties involved to remain calm and await the decision of the court on 29 November 2016”. To date, however, the SRC officers remain interdicted.
According to sources at the university, despite the YCL being part of the Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA), consisting of Cosas and Sasco, its leaders approached the high court, as they believed the results were rigged. The university joined the application and supported the nullification of the results.
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It is alleged one of the leaders interdicted, Mayenzeke Chiya, was then appointed as an administrator of the students’ council. While the appointment by the university council and the registrar was in terms of the SRC constitution, some students are accusing Chiya of having a conflict of interest.
Meanwhile, supply-chain correspondence shows how a “bash and pool party” to the tune of R499 658 was approved, deviating from supply-chain management policy. Then acting vice-chancellor Professor Xoliswa Mtose approved the request in March 2016.
Documents in The Citizen’s possession show that Gawe approved that “Vinyl Entertainment be appointed”, with the acting manager of procurement writing: “The SRC are requesting to host their opening bash and picnic this coming weekend. The acting vice-chancellor has signed the deviation … to ensure that the bash event happens this afternoon.”
Chiya, who was deputy secretary-general of the SRC at the time, contradicted the documents bearing Mtose’s signature, saying only three companies were quoted when, in fact, five did, and further said: “This was not an emergency, as the request to host the party was prepared a month ago, except that the ‘big stars’ that were billed to perform were slow in confirming their availability.”
The memorandum is silent on Chiya’s claims and also shows that this was almost 50% of the student council’s operational budget at the time. When pressed on whether this party was necessary for the cash-strapped SRC, Chiya told The Citizen: “We paid R400 000 registration fees for poor students.”
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