Counting of CPUT SRC votes delayed
THE counting of votes at Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) continued last night following the hotly-contested Student Representative Council (SRC) election.
The EFF Student Command (EFFSC) was battling it out against the Pan Africanist Student Movement of Azania (Pasma) and ANC-affiliated student movement, the South African Students Congress (SASC)
The SRC elections got off to a bumpy start, being postponed last week to Monday and Tuesday at the Cape Town and Bellville campus. They were delayed again, continuing until Wednesday.
The much-anticipated preliminary results were supposed to be released yesterday, which was the deadline, but counting had not begun.
Disgruntled student leader Sipho Mokoena said they had been frustrated because the people responsible for counting the votes had informed them that they had signed their contracts late.
CPUT spokesperson Lauren Kansley said the counting was delayed as a result of an issue related to the independent election agency’s staff, which was not linked to the university in any way.
“Unfortunately, it did mean that counting did not happen overnight as expected. But the ballot boxes have been collected and the process is now under way,” said Kansley.
So far, the EFFSC has claimed victory at the Mowbray campus, saying it was confident of a clean sweep on the remaining campuses.
The EFFSC won the preliminary elections at UCT, securing eight out of 15 seats, and also came up tops in KwaZulu-Natal’s Durban University of Technology, University of Zululand and Mangosuthu University of Technology at the weekend.
Meanwhile, SRC elections at the University of Western Cape(UWC) are expected to get under way next week on Monday and Tuesday.
Universities across the country are holding SRC elections.