Hon Speaker, the DA notes the spectacular Democratic Alliance Students Organisation, Daso, electoral victory in the SRC election at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.
After a year of good student governance under Daso, and the fulfilment of a realistic and coherent electoral manifesto, Daso went into yesterday's election quietly confident that they would be given a renewed mandate to govern the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University SRC. What happened, in fact, was an unprecedented, record "landslide" electoral victory for Daso, which took 16 of the 21 SRC seats. [Applause.]
This historic victory confirms and reinforces the fact that all voters, including students, yearn for good governance and governability. This is, in fact, also an important rejection of the poor governance and characteristic "ungovernability" of the ANC-aligned South African Students Congress, Sasco.
What is of grave concern, however, is the undemocratic and thuggish behaviour of Sasco-aligned students who, when they came to learn of their imminent crushing defeat, resorted to switching off the electricity, and invading a voting station and stealing a ballot box, of which the ballots had fortunately already been counted. This behaviour is an ominous portent of things to come in future elections, where the ANC will come under more and more pressure, as shown by the DA's by-election results yesterday.
This election result is not only a resounding endorsement of the incumbent Daso-led SRC leadership at this university, but also a significant momentum shift for Daso campaigns on all the other tertiary institution campuses across the country.
In this regard, we also note the biased and spurious reasons for the nonrecognition and nonregistration of Daso on some campuses, such as the University of Fort Hare.
NaseFort Hare siza kuphatha phaya. Enkosi. [Even at Fort Hare we will win the elections. I thank you.]