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NWU-Mafikeng students have spoken

It is very disturbing and nauseating to witness that the North-West University Mafikeng Campus has lost reputation and respect as a result of dishonourable actions by a few groups of people who fail to fulfil the responsibilities of the positions they hold in the university. On the 15th of May 2015 we have seen the student populace of the NWU-Mafikeng Campus uniting in a meaningful activism of holding both the SASCO led Student Representative Council (SRC) and University Management accountable for their ritual ineffectiveness that has brought the university to nothing but a state of utter disgrace. The ineffectiveness of the University Management and SRC has disrupted the pursuit of academic excellence in the university and the students have begun to stand up for their rights. It is clear that the students of the NWU-Mafikeng Campus are tired of being bamboozled and hoodwinked into believing that the SRC and University Management are advocating for the interests of the students. Both the SASCO led SRC and University Management have failed to improve the plight of South Africa’s aspiring intellectuals as they do not have the ability to act in the best interests of the students. The actions of the University Management and SRC which they claim to be strategic are an indication that the NWU-Mafikeng Campus does not care about the future of its students.

One of the elements that forms the major problems that affects the students of NWU-Mafikeng Campus is the academic dishonesty of the SASCO led SRC and University Management. SASCO led SRC which has been elected by the students to represent them and champion for their interests has failed dismally to do so. SASCO led SRC promised students pipedreams that are not yet implemented by the University Management. SASCO led SRC was suppose to be a guide and resuscitate the ailing NWU-Mafikeng Campus and bring it back to life, but instead the SASCO led SRC is suffering the same fate as the University Management. SASCO led SRC was suppose to be critical of the University Management when it comes to morality and when the latter is not delivering. Currently the students of NWU-Mafikeng Campus are demanding institutional transformation that has been promised to them since the merger of the university because they have not seen any transformation of any sort in the NWU-Mafikeng Campus. Institutional transformation has been a rumour at NWU-Mafikeng Campus and the students have taken responsibility to fight for their own rights to achieve radical ends. The NWU-Mafikeng Campus students are tired of seeing cosmetic changes; we are calling for fundamental changes which have led to the improvement of development in our sister campuses.

We cannot expect radical transformation to prevail in our NWU-Mafikeng Campus while we have the University Management that consist of people who are parachuted to higher positions that they do not qualify for, and the SRC that view their positions and office as an opportunity not as a sacred duty. As students we cannot continue to be governed by people who do not possess knowledge. The NWU-Mafikeng Campus will not see better days until we see people who are rightly and genuinely qualified to lead acquire authority. Our beloved University must be controlled by knowledge, not by mediocrity. The NWU-Mafikeng Campus students have been deprived of the right to raise their voices by the University Management because the University Management is afraid of engaging serious issues with the students. As far as I am concerned, in the post democratic South Africa, students are given both the metaphorical practice and pragmatic concern of raising their voices regarding anything related to education. The NWU-Mafikeng Campus students demand their rights to express their role in the educational system of the university. How can the students realise their futures while they are always excluded by the University Management from the decisions that concerns them? Whenever the students encounter problems at the NWU-Mafikeng Campus, the University Management is always dawdling to respond to the students, let alone coming up with solutions to the problems that are faced by the students and for that the students have taken a lead for pushing for the implementation of meaningful change in the university.

Majority of the students at the NWU-Mafikeng Campus are the children of the working class and social welfare dependent parents and we are here at the university to acquire necessary qualifications to infinitely better our lives and those of our families, but this university (NWU-Mafikeng Campus) is slowly becoming a hindrance to our dreams as it has turned into a volatile environment for young people who earnestly need to fulfil their full potentials. The NWU-Mafikeng Campus was suppose to be an environment aimed at raising the aspirations and sense of belonging to its students, but those things are an anathema to the NWU-Mafikeng Campus. One of the characteristics of the NWU-Mafikeng Campus is impingement, the university has been an effect especially a negative one to the academic progress of its students.

It is just shocking how we have been conditioned to believe within the bounds of the status quo that the SASCO led SRC and University Management have made the interests of the students their first priority. What we have currently at the NWU-Mafikeng Campus is a group of individuals who are skilled in making noise than sense and those individuals consider themselves as members of the SRC. I feel that we no longer know the true meaning of the SRC and what the responsibilities of the SRC are. We are mistakenly misrepresenting the virtue of the SRC when we refer a certain group of people who think are wise in their own estimation, as being part of the SRC. For what I know is that there is a certain reliable and trustworthy SRC that is made up of members who have devoted their hearts and souls to form absolute ideas; members who are prepared to suffer for the sake of implementing good ideas that will beneficiate student masses; members who are committed to defend, uphold, and advocate those good ideas in order for their institution of learning to be a better learning environment for all. That SRC was able to raise R1 million within a short period of time somewhere around South Africa and that SRC always carry the mandate given to them by the students.

What has been observed about the NWU-Mafikeng Campus Management is that they are not as good at listening to the students whenever they question the management’s decisions or criticise their governance policies. The University Management listen to only what they want to hear. The dissenting views of the students are not earnestly considered as co-creators of academic community, but are instead dismissed as part of a minority of troublemakers. The NWU-Mafikeng Campus Management must recognise that students in this campus have a legitimate voice demand and they must be respected because the students play a vital role as participating members of a school community. It is very wrong to believe that the NWU-Mafikeng Campus is a progressive institution while it is governed by common sense since its leaders are suffering from poverty of ideas and lack well of knowledge. The SASCO led SRC which was suppose to serve as an instrument that renew and radicalise the NWU-Mafikeng Campus is facing relevance crisis. But this is not a surprise because all African National Congress (ANC) aligned movements have no record of good service delivery at the South African tertiary institutions. The failures of SASCO led SRC are an indication of how people can be narrow minded and how people tend to think about themselves only sometimes.

The NWU-Mafikeng Campus students are now seized with many challenges such as poor learning conditions and lack of learning materials, and the students expected the SASCO led SRC to infuse new ideas to the University Management on how to overcome the challenges faced by students for the sake of enhancing success at the NWU-Mafikeng Campus. However the students of the NWU-Mafikeng Campus have realised that they have been too complacent with both the SASCO led SRC and the University Management for too long and there is no light concerning the change of the unfavourable environment for learning that the NWU-Mafikeng Campus has become. The NWU-Mafikeng Campus students calls for the University Management to stop holding back when it comes to institutional transformation, radical change is long overdue. We will realise institutional transformation once the University Management quells its neo-liberal strategies that destroys the potential of students and education in the university.

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