ANC concerned by Sasco's poor performance - Mantashe

Johannesburg - The ANC has expressed concern at the SA Students Congress's (Sasco) "poor" performance during Student Representative Council (SRC) elections at universities around the country.

This was discussed at the ruling party's two-day national executive committee meeting held at the weekend.

Mantashe said Sasco had lost control of four campuses.

"It was agreed that the ANC Youth League's contestation for the leadership of SRCs should be strongly discouraged," ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe told reporters in Johannesburg on Sunday.

"Every member of the ANC Youth League must be a member of Sasco in every campus."

This is something which would be discussed in the ANCYL conference set to be held next month.

Last month, the Democratic Alliance Student Organisation (Daso) won the Student Representative Council of Fort Hare University in the Eastern Cape.

Sasco, which has had tight control over the SRC for the past two years, only managed to secure 37% of the vote.

The university has been home to great ANC leaders, and has always been a stronghold of the ANC.

Mantashe said Sasco needed to understand that student politics was about the day-to-day issues and not the "universal political concepts".

"Being rooted among students is critical for the strengthening of Sasco.

"There must be a programme that is ongoing and not only focusing on SRC elections."

Mantashe said the assumption that Sasco leaders, once elected SRC leaders, were autonomous and so did not have to follow organisational discipline needed urgent attention.

"The NEC was of the view that there is a need to support the Progressive Youth Alliance and reaffirm its hegemony at the country's institutions of higher education."

The PYA was made up of the composed of the ANCYL, Young Communist League of South Africa, Sasco and the Congress of the SA Students.

"Doing this must necessarily involve acknowledging and confronting weakness within the organisations themselves as well as ensuring that progressive student leaders are rooted amongst their constituencies," Mantashe said.