By: Zimasa Magudu  

As the country looks forward to the general elections next year, students at the Durban University of Technology await the results from the Student Representative Council (SRC) elections that were taking place throughout the second half of this week.

The three day election process commenced on Monday 1^st of October and voting stations were set in each of the four campuses. The results will be revealed by midday today, 4^th of October, as the counting of votes began at 08:00am this morning.

Running for the SRC elections this year was NASMO, SADESMO and the Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA) -which is made up of ANCYL, SASCO and the YCLSA.

The PYA in the past two years was not unified and the parties stood for elections independently. In 2011/2012, the SRC was led by the ANCYL and in 2012/2013 the SRC was led by SASCO.

The different parties presented their manifestos where they also revealed their candidates in September and campaigns have been going on since, with visits to DUT residences and campuses.

These are some of the T-shirts that were given out to students during campaigns. All hearts are awaiting the outcome of the elections as votes were counted on Friday. Picture by: Zimasa Magudu.

Social networks played a huge role, especially the DUT SRC page on Facebook, where members of the various parties promoted their candidates and manifestos, starting debates among each other. Students were also given organisational t-shirts as part of campaigning.

While majority of the students voted, others refrained and argued that their vote in the previous years had not brought about any changes.

“I don’t even know any of these people, where have they been the whole year,” said an Interior Design Student from City Campus.

Tholinhlanhla Ngubani, an ANC Youth League representative, urged the students to vote wisely.

“Comrades, you must not allow yourselves to be led by students who have been in DUT for more than three years but have not experienced what it is like to be in second year,” said Ngubani, speaking at one of the residence visits at Sterling House Residence on the evening before the elections commenced.