Statement
Date: 23 September 2010
The Balances of Forces are slowly shifting in our favour and mass action is the
only option to speed up this
As SASCO let us take this opportunity to issue our view as it relates to the
SRC
Election outcomes of Rhodes University. The results of the elections are indeed
not satisfactory to both us as an organisation and to the candidates that
contested on behalf of us. We like to utter the fact the fact that we lost the
elections is not as a result of the unpopularity or the incompetency of our
candidates but it is as a result of fundamental structural problems, which are
as the result of the untransformed nature of the institution.
The fact is that Rhodes is dominated by white students, secondly by sons and
daughters of the emergent middle and upper black strata, thirdly by black
foreign students who are highly apolitical and lastly by a tiny section of
black
working class students, mostly found in the extended studies programmes. For
one
to win elections he must appeal to the first and second strata of the Rhodes
population, hence we lost elections.
The issue is not as a result of a failed strategy from our side to appeal to
these students but it’s about the level and extent in which we can go in
appealing to them. We cannot allow our fundamental positions on issues to be
altered by the process of garnering for votes. SASCO remains a mass student
movement not are mere populist SRC electoral organisation, like other fly by
night organisations.
Another fact matter is that Rhodes remains the most hostile institution to our
agenda of transformation and this does not speak to management only but also to
the student community as well, so if a candidate is associated with SASCO it’s
a
disadvantage rather than an advantage for him or her. Nonetheless thank all
those who have clearly defied this narrow liberal culture dubbed as the ‘Rhodes
Culture’ and voted for candidates of SASCO and generally the PYA.
The idea of the Progressive 15 and the hype generated around it clearly sent
shock waves to the reactionary forces existing in the buildings and corridors
of
the institution and it boldly registered our existence and vibrancy on campus.
Hence you had a grouping and regrouping of reactionary forces hell bent on
making sure that our efforts do not come to fruition.
Now we know for sure that SASCO has a full backing of more than 500 students in
this campus and it is thus our mission to mobilise them so that they are
organised in carrying out the struggle for the radical transformation of this
reactionary institution. The struggle for transformation of the institution and
broadly the education landscape does not start and end by capturing the SRC,
because the SRC as a body, despite the fallacious stories, remains relatively
away of the decision making apparatus of the institution.
We must be working on the ground and we must mobilise students to the streets
and 500 students is enough to do this exercise. We must understand that
contesting the SRC is not an end but a tactic over which we test our power
vis-à-vis the student body and here it appears that our power has increased
over
the years but it is not enough to win the elections.
In history comrades of SASCO experience a situation more difficult than this.
When he contested elections comrade, comrade Vasco Ndebele, got less than 20
votes out of a campus of 5, 000 students. The recent results clearly indicate
that the balance of forces are slowly shifting in our favour and it requires
the
determination of the leadership of SASCO and the PYA structures in the campus
to make sure that this process become as drastic as possible.
Let us thank the students who voted for the candidates fielded by the
organisation and express the fact that their efforts did not go unnoticed but
were strongly felt. Let us also thank the candidates who decided to accept the
clarion call by the membership of SASCO and other PYA structures on campus.
Let us restate the following:
· We remain committed to our struggle for the radical transformation of
this campus for the benefit of all South Africans
· We are currently engaged in a process of making sure that the fee
increment is as minimal as possible
· We will continue to fight for better student services
· We will continue to fight against all forms of exclusion of black
working class students in the campus
Statement Issued by the Branch Executive Committee of SASCO
Rhodes University
For more information contact
Branch Chairperson
Xanti Njozela
0733806031
Or
Branch Secretary
Brendan Lee
0787561172
"The state is the product and manifestation of the irreconcilability of class
antagonisms..."State and Revolution, Lenin (1917)
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