SRC rejects claims over R4m as ‘baseless propaganda’
QUESTIONS over the student representative council’s spending habits were shrugged off as baseless propaganda ahead of tomorrow’s SRC elections at Nelson Mandela University.
The DA-affiliated student organisation Daso accused the interim SRC, under the leadership of Sasco’s Pedro Mzileni, of a lack of transparency, saying numerous requests for financial statements on how the student structure had spent nearly R4-million coming from student accounts, had been ignored.
Daso NMU chairman Kwanda Jakalase said the matter had been raised with the dean of students and they would be submitting a Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) application to obtain the SRC’s financial records.
“Students have the right to know what their money was used for. We will not rest until we have ascertained exactly what this money was spent on,” he said.
However, during a media briefing, led by Mzileni, Sasco hit back at Daso, saying they were resorting to “terrorist” tactics, trying to sabotage Sasco’s campaign with less than two days before NMU students head to the polls.
“First of all, the entire annual budget for the SRC was R3.4-million. Secondly, a student that is a member of the SRC never sees cash. There is a strict process that is followed whereby we apply for money from the university, who then either pay service providers directly or gives us a cheque. So stealing money is impossible,” Mzileni said.
He said some of the SRC’s expenses included SRC member stipends (R600 000), grants for on-campus societies (R600 000), funds for student debt bailouts (R500 000), funding for George Campus SRC (R250 000) and SRC uniforms (R50 000).
Large sums of money were also used for a number of student social events, like the annual City Bus Tour (R120 000) for first year orientation and the Ubuntu Music Festival (R145 000).
“Daso members that form part of the interim SRC structure also benefited from the stipends and the uniforms, so they know exactly where the funds are going. This is nothing more than a smear campaign ahead of the elections,” Mzileni said.
NMU spokeswoman Zandile Mbabela said the university was unaware of the allegations linked to the spending of R4-million, but said any allegations as serious as these would be investigated.