Project-W distances itself from Wits SRC

JAMAINE MITHI

“The Wits SRC is not a political promotion tool for the Mayor”

A letter addressed to the Wits University community yesterday claimed that the Wits SRC is to host an event with the City of Johannesburg on Friday March 20, as part of a programme detailing relations between the cities of Johannesburg and Ramallah.

As members of the Wits SRC with over 40 per cent of its directly elected officials, we wish to distance ourselves from this event and the claim that the SRC supports the mayor’s initiative. The reasons for opposition have nothing to do with rights or wrongs of the Middle East. As SRC members we stand on the principle that our council should be concerned with the health and well-being of our university and its students and not as a platform to advance outside political interests.

RIGHT: “Mighti Jamie” questions SRC’s governance which leads to VC appointing urgent inquiry

It has become clear that this event has nothing to do with student affairs and that the SRC is simply being used as a tool of the Johannesburg mayor’s office. The e-mail for instance claims that an SRC member, Mcebo Dlamini, accompanied Mayor Parks Tau on a visit to Ramallah late last year.  There is no record of the SRC approving this visit, nor of a budget for it, unless funds were secretly and illegally used for this purpose, it is clear that Mr Dlamini was acting in his capacity as the Progressive Youth Alliance leader and not that of a student representative.
Nor does Mr Mcebo Dlamini have any authority to organise such a meeting on behalf of the SRC as he was recently found guilty at a University disciplinary hearing and has been suspended. http://tinyurl.com/nxgj8xk

This incident follows a disturbing pattern of mismanagement occurring at Wits. Since taking office in November the SRC president has not once called an official meeting of the council. The student body has no official agenda, budget, resolutions or minutes to assess for the year of 2015.
The students have no measure to hold the SRC to account on its goals and their implementation and no way of knowing how their money is beings spent. This politicised behaviour is starting to hamper the work of the SRC. As yet there has not been a single e-mail sent out supporting the SRC’s collection of food for hungry students, yet we are subjected to spam promoting PYA overseas junkets.

This event has not been approved by an official meeting of the SRC, nor has it been organised by a member of the SRC. Therefore it does not have the support of this body and we as Wits SRC members hereby distance ourselves from any association with it. Furthermore, we have laid a complaint with the Vice-Chancellors office about the behaviour the SRC executive and demand that they begin to abide by the norms of good governance and accountability.

Jamaine Mithi (Mighti Jamie)
WITS SRC member, head of the official opposition Wits SRC

PDF on SAJR Online: PROJECT-W COMPLAINT ON SRC TO PROF HABIB
The document submitted to Prof Habib that led the VC to immediately establish an urgent and in-depth enquiry this week. SAJR Online will get the outcome as soon as it is established, but sources have suggested the SRC has been using its funds to support BDS and IAW