University elections cause chaos
Unizulu students say the election process was unfair.
THE already bumpy road to the University of Zululand (Unizulu) student leadership elections turned rougher last week, fraught with intimidation reports and allegations of potholes in the election process. Mayhem ruled the institution after a senior manager allegedly threatened students with a firearm on Sunday.
Furious students said they were waiting for answers about the ‘unfair’ election process, but were faced with a barrel instead.
Speaking to the Zululand Observer yesterday, angry South African Student Congress (Sasco) members said the institution’s management has favoured some candidates for the elections.
‘Management included people on the list who do not qualify for the elections. Candidates need to achieve a 60% academic pass mark, with no criminal record. This was ignored as an unqualified candidate was allowed to run for the elections. This is a breech of the university’s constitution. According to the rules, those who do not meet the criteria must withdraw. It is senior management that approved him, even after it was discovered he didn’t qualify,’ said students.
‘When we tried to ask questions about the unfair process, the Chief Electoral Officer, Dr Isaac Machi, pulled his gun and pointed at us. It’s a serious matter for a senior manager to threaten students with a weapon. This is totally against the law, and when we reported it to the internal security, they didn’t take us seriously.,’
Unizulu Director of Communications and Marketing, Nomah Zondo, said all candidates appearing in the election lists were identified through appropriate electoral processes.
‘All these candidates complied with electoral requirements. In the event that objections arise, those were dealt with accordingly by the Elections Committee and the Chief Electoral Officer. The Vice-Chancellor and Unizulu management were never involved in the process of identifying candidates,’ said Zondo.
Zondo said Dr Machi denied pointing a gun at any students.
‘A group of unruly students attempted to assault Dr Machi on Sunday. He was rescued by armed security officers who escorted him out of the University premises.’
that is the reason why I do not like politic, everything is a corruption. a wise man once said where there are politicians there are also lies flying around. and yes the elections were totally not fair. the process of voting started very later and ended very early. most of the students did not vote.
Yes elections were not free and fair. They started at about 5 and some of the students were left outside because they already left. But this thing of Dr Machi pulling a gun to students is pure lies. They are just discrediting Him because he made some decisions that unfavoured them. I personally would be happy if the elections can be regarded null and void.
I know isaac and I know him very well and I mean “very well”more dan he knows himself. When it comes to wrk, he is strictly responsible, he dznt take any favors frm anyone, u can’t buy him, he makes his decisions fair nd square, he dznt do any favors for anyone. When it comes to his job, believe me he is fairly straight, he follows da protocol of work and he don’t get used to any job or work, to him, he is always new at wrk. When it comes to fire arm, he can loose his temper, juz like a human being, bt he’ll neva loose it on any one especially student. He is da leader, he will never do such. These are lies, he will never use his fire arm not for any reasons. He got da fire arm to protect himself against thugs, and he dznt carry it at wrk, he only carry it when he is going away frm Rbay mayb to dbn or far where he dznt knw. So wit da fire arm dey definitely lying.