BY: Nothando Nyuswa.
With the wits SRC 2025 elections around the corner, the pressing question remains, are students voices truly being heard? Students still grapple with the very same challenges that echo the 2015 #FeesMustFall movement, including high and crippling university fees, accommodation shortages, NSFAS defunding, and the growing challenge of “missing middle” students who fall outside financial aid criteria.
This year’s elections have sparked a wave of pledges for transformation for students. The Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA) and the EFF Youth Command both recognise the fight for free education goes beyond campus politics, but it is a battle over access to education in a country still scarred by inequality. Although the system and policies over education may not favor the students, however they resiliently commit themselves to continue to” agitate these laws until there is progressive reform “, as the chairperson of the EFFSC branch Sithembiso Madonsela puts it.
The EFF Youth command emphasizes the importance of the Government to fully subsidise tertiary tuition and restructure NSFAS to subsidise accordingly, as they argue students cannot get employment as the university withholds degree certificates, creating a cycle of not being able to pay what they owe.
Furthermore, they propose the government is capable of allocating funds to write off student debt. The EFF position on accommodation challenges is that the expensive residence prices must be interrogated as they do not make sense when it comes to the services offered and that the hardship fund should be extended to 100% and be applicable to external and internal residences. Lastly mid-year year academic exclusions should be scrapped.
The PYA stance is similar as they also recognise that not all students are well funded and should not be denied their right to education due to this. ” No student should be denied a degree because of money.” As candidate Sifiso Palai of the PYA puts it. The PYA works hard yearly to gather external funds to ensure students can register and continue with their degrees despite having historical debt also emphasizing the scrapping of the 50% settlement of due fees before registering for the academic year.
Their stance on accommodation is that all students should have a residence and if not, they urge students to report this as they commit themselves to having talks with external residences to mitigate these issues, so no student is left without shelter.
Lasty the PYA emphasizes the importance of inclusivity on campus like scrapping the kudu buck’s system or allowing all students in the university to have 200 kudu bucks uploaded to their student accounts at the beginning of every year, also demanding for residences to be maintained. The PYA has furhter committed themselves to raise the hardship fund from 35 million to 50 million. “we are leadership that has led before, we have encountered these issues and brought foward solutions ” Says PYA Nomakule Ntuli.
The university of Witwatersrand is home to one of the most progressive student governing structures in the country, so as students head to the polls on Monday, they face a clear choice between two tried and tested progressive student movements. That both promise to bring change on campus. The outcome of the students votes will determine who occupies the big office and addresses the pressing issues of student fees and debt.
