A number of student activists have caught the attention of SA’s leading political parties, with their names appearing on some party lists submitted to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC).
They include former University of Pretoria #FeesMustFall leader Naledi Chirwa, Wits #FeesMustFall leader Vuyani Pambo, former Wits SRC president and #FeesMustFall leader Nompendulo Mkhatshwa and former Nelson Mandela University Student Representative Council (SRC) president Nicholas Nyati.
Leading the charge with student activists is the EFF, which included at least four #FeesMustFall leaders.
On its list, apart from Chirwa and Pambo, the EFF also included EFF Student Command leaders Peter Keetse and Phiwaba Madokwe.
Mkhatshwa, who emerged from the 2015 #FeesMustFall movement, appears on the ANC national list while former DA student organisation leader Nyati is on the provincial list of the DA.
EFF MP and Eastern Cape media liaison Yoliswa Yako said the party’s list was all-encompassing and balanced in terms of gender, incorporating the young and mature and retaining many of the MPs in parliament.
“[We] also wanted educated people who will take us into the future because it’s not enough to recruit and say we want the same politicians,” Yako said. “The EFF is only five years old but we’ve managed to achieve something.
“In the EFF you are able to thrive and prosper because everyone’s idea is pulled together to make a bigger plan.”
DA Eastern Cape leader Nqaba Bhanga said the youth was the pulse of the nation and the party felt it was time to invest in young people and leaders of tomorrow.
Bhanga said student leaders brought many skills and played a role in assisting the leadership in thinking about the direction the DA should take.
“We’ve spent time investing in our youth because if you look at our list in council and parliament, we have youth,” Bhanga said.
Political analyst Ongama Mtimka said the DA started including student activists as far back as 2011 with Yussuf Cassim, who was the former NMU SRC president.
“They have been recruiting consistently and even recruited Samantha Beynon and included her in Nelson Mandela Bay as a PR councillor,” he said.
“This is something the ANC used to do historically but the DA have done so with the intention to deploy so it’s nothing new.”
Mtimka said #FeesMustFall leaders had had a huge impact on policy, resulting in an immediate change in government funding.
“Because of that, political parties competed to be the political home of the #FeesMustFall movement.”