SRC At DUT Alleges Corruption Over Suspensions

Economic Freedom Fighters president Julius Malema (R) with the Durban University of Technology SRC president Sesiyanda Godlimpi during an EFF rally at DUT on 16 April 2019.

“Everything that is currently happening is politics at play because more of our students have been suspended and management is delaying the hearing until SRC term ends,” student representative council chairperson Khanyisani Khambule told the Daily Vox in an interview.

Disciplinary hearing of suspended SRC president Sesiyanda Godlimpi with six other students has been  postponed to Tuesday July 30, which according to the management is a continuation of the hearing from July 23 2019.

“The SRC president and SRC’s transformation and education officer, alongside three other students, were suspended for the alleged violation of the university’s student code of conduct. They are scheduled to attend the university’s students disciplinary hearing next week Tuesday, 30 July 2019, which is a continuation of the hearing that commenced on Tuesday, 23 July 2019,” senior director of corporate affairs Alan Khan said in a statement.

However, the SRC has accused management of playing politics while trying to cover up their tricks by suspending more students.

“DUT is very corrupt. They are targeting the president so that he won’t be able to participate in any activities until our term ends but they are also suspending other students so that it doesn’t look as though they are plotting against the president. There is a SRC budget set aside for events and they know that the president is radical and would oppose some of those events, so they are using the suspension to silence him,” said Khambule.

“Those suspended were told to make presentations to the management justifying why they shouldn’t be suspended but after making the, no response was received from management instead letters of substantive suspension were received with no charges; which we also found to be problematic. Also these charges have no grounds because the people who are said to have carried out any victimisation against staff did not do it,” Khambule said.

According to Khambule, charges were only forwarded to students two weeks after suspension.

“We only received charges laid against them two weeks after suspension and they are charged with staff intimidation. We are waiting for the hearing on Tuesday but we know it will be postponed again because it’s one of the management’s tactics,” he said.

Khambule said further that the SRC has plans in place to deal with the matter but it would be premature to disclose their plans due to the delicacy of the matter.

“We do have a plan on how we are going to deal with this but at this stage we can’t really disclose any information on that because we have to wait for the hearing to be concluded and then act on the outcome but the intelligence within the management has told us that the matter is being dragged on purpose,” Khambule said.

Meanwhile more EFFSC students are being suspended at DUT including those who were arrested in a protest last week, election season is nearing. July marks the end term of the SRC in office until elections commence in August 28. The SRC says that an interim leadership has been established until voting processes begin and academic activities are continuing following a spate of protests.

Featured image by Lizeka Maduna