By Sbongile Nonyana
The mood was upbeat on Tuesday as students voted on the first day of student representative council elections at the Tshwane University of Technology’s Soshanguve campus.
Members of political organisations pitched their tents inside and outside the campus, with tables stacked with T-shirts ready to be handed out after they helped students vote online.
The parties’ strategy was to give each student a T-shirt after voting.
Students of the IFP-aligned South African Democratic Students Movement formed groups in the morning and went to the residences off-campus to encourage students to vote.
The EFF Student Command played revolutionary songs from a car as students danced, with some wearing T-shirts from opposition parties.
The MK Youth League of Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto Wesizwe party pitched its tent near the gate to attract arriving students.
The Democratic Alliance Student Organisation struggled because, even though it had many T-shirts, the students didn’t pay attention to them.
The Student Christian Organisation was nowhere to be seen, although it had received student votes in the past.
ActionSA volunteers left their table in the afternoon because no student had been there to vote.
Later, members of the ANC-aligned South African Students Congress entered the gate, sang revolutionary songs, and headed towards the student residences on campus.
However, when they returned, the group didn’t have the same momentum because many students had already voted for other organisations.
By 8pm, 5,226 students out of 18,728 (about 28%) who study at TUT had voted. Voting continues until Thursday evening.
Pictured above: The MK tent during the elections.
Source: Sbongile Nonyana
