EFFSC celebrates CS Barlow SRC victory

Motetema

The Economic Freedom Fighters Student Command (EFFSC) took all ten seats at the Sekhukhune TVET College’s Students Representative Council (SRC) election held at CS Barlow Campus in Motetema on Wednesday 14 February.

The victory saw the EFFSC candidates winning in all the ten categories of the SRC structure in the college for the first time. An African National Congress (ANC) affiliate, South African Students Congress (SASCO), was also contesting the election and did not win any seat.

During the election, Lucky Lebelwana was elected SRC Chairperson, Peter Mashao elected as Deputy Chairperson, Ditebogo Moela was elected Secretary, Amanda Vilakazi was elected Publicity Officer and Itumeleng Lekgeu was elected as Treasurer of the institution’s SRC.

The students furthered elected George Nyalungu as Academic Officer, Simphiwe Motau as a Health and Disability Officer, Tebogo Ramotshela as Sports and Recreational Office, Oupa Mothapo was elected as Safety and Environmental Officer and Boitumelo Majwe was elected Gender Officer at the campus.

The newly elected SRC Chairperson, Lucky Lebelwana, said it was not an easy victory as they worked very hard before the elections.

“The campaign was a bit tough due to limited resources. But the advantage was that we started the work last year after losing the 2023 elections. We worked on closing the gaps were the opposition failed and that’s how we attracted the attention of students and they began to put their trust in us. That’s how we dealt with them. We also got the attention of new students through social media where we got more numbers of voters,” he said.

Lebelwana said the EFFSC is committed to give CS Barlow students a stress free 2024 academic year.

“We will ensure that they get their results in time and their registrations are finalised in time. We want to fix the students residence and increase the pass rate in our campus or even extend it to the college level,” he said.

Lebelwana said the structure will also address challenges faced by students who are always required by the college to pay for the National Students Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) debts, which is supposed to be free to all students.

“These students are denied their academic results, we want to fix that. Registration process is also poor and we will be addressing that problem too. The students’ hostel is paid by NSFAS but the sanitation there is very poor. There is actually poor infrastructure within the entire hostel and the health of students is at risk,” he said.