Voting on the amendments to the Stellenbosch University (SU) Student Constitution will close on 6 September as the Students’ Representative Council (SRC) approved non-fundamental amendments at their meeting on 27 August.
The vote will determine whether the fundamental amendments to the SU Student Constitution are in fact approved.
The objectives of the amendments are explained by SRC Secretary-General and Policy Officer Denisha Padachey as, amongst other things, wanting to “encourage participation from the larger student body in matters that affect students in a format conducive to debate”.
Some of the proposed amendments for the Student Constitution.
Padachey says the voting is happening parallel with the SRC elections because the Student Constitution amendments have to be finalised “as soon as possible”. “If the students vote and accept the amendments with a 50%+1 majority, then the amendments are approved and the new constitution comes into effect,” added Padachey.
The comments were meant to have been done by 15 August, but some students felt they had been given little time to study the proposed amendments.
“At the time we weren’t given time to read the amended constitution and the SRC was rushing everything because they wanted to leave this [amended constitution] as their legacy,” says Maxwell Mlangeni (22), a 3rd year BSc Forestry student and a staunch critic of the proposed amendments.
The proposed amendment for the SRC has come under scrutiny from some leadership circles at SU.
“The proposed amendments will benefit a certain group on campus. Take for example the proposed point of adding the Senior Prim Committee members to the SRC: my proposition was that the Vice-Chairperson of the Prim Committee must be removed because history has taught us that the person who holds that position does not articulate the needs of off-campus students,” says Mlangeni.
SRC Chairperson Lwando Nkamisa expressed his frustration at the delays they experienced with the amendment process: “Students were given a chance to comment, some responded and some did not. Some went to the meetings with limited information and were unable to engage.”
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