Support democracy, not demagoguery – Mazibuko
STUDENT politicians should not look to expelled ANC Youth League president Julius Malema for guidance, says DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko.
She said his tactics were to sow “divisions and discord” in society.
Those contesting student elections should instead use their vision of public service and love of democracy to improve their campus.
Mazibuko was addressing students at the University of Western Cape as part of the DA Students’ Organisation (Daso) SRC election campaign.
A date for the SRC election has not yet been finalised.
In last year’s elections, all 12 seats were won by the SA Students Congress.
About 150 students, some in favour of Mazibuko and others against, gathered in the Library Auditorium during lunchtime.
She said student politicians should not look to Malema or President Jacob Zuma.
“This is not the time for national politics because this is a localised contest. When you watch Mr Malema in the courtroom or inciting a crowd, what do you see? Well, he is rabblerouser second to none.
“He makes for good theatre. And he is a man without a plan. There is no discernible end game or strategy.”
Mazibuko said it was important that Daso, contesting the student representative council elections at the UWC for the first time this year, win the polls.
“You need to show the youth of South Africa a better way. We must restore the belief that politics is not the place for personal enrichment, skulduggery, or for the mediocre to rise, but is the arena for noble pursuits and just causes.
“In politics today, we need the best brains and talent we can lay our hands on. The challenges of South Africa are too great for politics to be a mission left till ‘later in life’.
She said tertiary institutions were the repositories of the nation’s best and brightest.
Mazibuko had intended to use the opportunity to call for Zuma to cancel upgrades to Nkandla. It had been reported that the Department of Public Works would spend R203 million on Zuma’s private homestead in KwaZulu-Natal. She had decided to instead focus on what was happening on the campus.