Varsity poll: Trollip puts DA’S case
DA EASTERN Cape leader Athol Trollip went on the campaign trail yesterday, asking students at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University to put their faith in his party’s DA Student Organisation (Daso) for the upcoming SRC elections.
DA and ANC leaders are hard at work this week to woo votes for Daso and the South African Student Congress (Sasco) respectively.
While Sasco’s planned public dialogue with Higher Education Deputy Minister Mdu Manana was postponed, students at the North Campus were addressed by Trollip and DA national spokesman Mmusi Maimane on the importance of voting.
Trollip told students that they were the new generation which would defend democracy.
Maimane spoke about the challenges that the country faced which kept the youth from realising a dream of a brighter future.
“President [Jacob] Zuma and the ANC have given up on implementing the youth wage subsidy, essentially giving up on 423 000 job opportunities . . .
“Our unemployment rate soared, whilst the economy stagnated. The cost of living, especially for the poorest South Africans, dramatically increased.
“Thousands of schools across the country, especially in Limpopo and the Eastern Cape, failed to deliver textbooks to their pupils.
“I hate to break this to you, but I am sure you have realised this by now, that dream [of a better future] cannot be realised by the ANC . . . only by the DA.”
Trollip said the leadership environment in South Africa gave him a picture of a big hat and little cattle, a saying which describes someone who is all talk and no substance.
He said they should look at the SRC they voted for last year and evaluate what it had delivered.
DA leader Helen Zille’s visit to the university two weeks ago kicked off the campaigns.
SRC president Yusuf Cassim and Daso presidential candidate Yanga Sibelekwana took to the platform and asked students for their votes.
ANC regional chairman Nceba Faku campaigned at the Missionvale campus on Tuesday.
He said it was abnormal for a university named after Nelson Mandela to be governed by Daso.