South Africa: A Delicate Balancing Act As SRC President

The answer to what it takes to lead the Students' Representative Council (SRC) at Africa's top university may be relatively obvious: resilience. However, faced with student demands owing to financial constraints, and having to keep your decorum in engaging management is a fine balancing act.

But Kitso Mojapelo, who will conclude his term of office as SRC president at the end of October, said "it has been an honour to serve" UCT students. Although he did not originally assume the position, he stepped into it with the kind of erudite enthusiasm of a leader who has been around. The third-year mechanical engineering student has been part of residence committees and has served on student political party bodies in the past.

Johannesburg-born Mojapelo arrived at UCT in 2024 and plans to conclude his undergraduate degree next year and pursue his master's. "Coming to Cape Town was a bit of a shock and adjustment, but so far, it has been great. UCT has had a bit of challenges for me here and there, but I have been able to lean on a lot of support, especially being in the residence system, which has been essential to my growth. Being in the residence system is part of the reason I got into student leadership and advocacy. It has allowed me to see many of the challenges students face first-hand, and it has been an honour to serve so far," he said.

"Towards the end of my first year, I ran for house committee. My parents had told me not to get involved in student governance and to focus on my studies instead, which is something a lot of parents say. But my friends encouraged me, so I put my hand up anyway. I got elected, and from there doors started opening. Since then, I've been involved in many different parts of residence life, from social outreach to transformation."

"I felt if anyone was going to do it, it was going to be me."

Mojapelo points to his second year as the catalyst for where he finds himself now in student leadership. He joined a student political party organisation, held a senior position and then set his sights on the SRC - the highest decision-making structure of student governance - and the rest is history.

"Being SRC president comes with its own challenges, but it is rewarding to be able to advocate for students. As for whether I was ready when I stepped into the role, I don't think anyone is ever fully ready to lead a university population as diverse as ours. That said, I had gained a lot of experience in my previous roles, and I felt that if anyone was going to do it, it should be me. It has been challenging. I have had to learn a lot about myself: like how to engage with different people and how to keep a team united, and it has also been really fulfilling."

A lesson in resilience

Issues that swirl across universities over the years have become as predictable as they are persistent: housing, fees and National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) hurdles. For Mojapelo and team, it was no different. "I speak to my dad quite a bit. He was also in student leadership many years ago, and he gets a sense of déjà vu when he hears that the issues his generation fought for still exist today. The biggest ones are fees and housing. Unfortunately, UCT is very expensive compared to other institutions. Policies passed by government and NSFAS have left many students carrying debt year after year, and that has real consequences for them within the university. Another big issue has been the NSFAS cap on student accommodation costs. It is a systemic problem at an institutional level, and we will keep holding management accountable. We have also realised that it goes far beyond UCT, so we need to look to government and hold them accountable as well."

These issues elicit an interesting trade-off in conversations with university management, as well as students: "As the SRC, we relied heavily on our student leaders on the ground and the feedback they gave us. That said, students and the SRC are not always aligned. We have to balance the priorities of the students we advocate for, keep them safe and get the best possible outcome for them, and that is not always smooth sailing. For example, students did not fully back our registration plan, even though we had secured major concessions. To address this, we held a leadership lekgotla that brought together student leaders from across the university, so that we could all share the same message."

He added: "We advocate for students, and management focuses on institutional priorities. Both are valid, but sometimes they clash. That said, we are in a much better space to engage each other now than we were at the start of the year. At the end of the day, most student leaders agree that the fight is for free, decolonised education. A lot of that is still a long way off, and getting there will take deep engagement with policy.

"The biggest lesson for me has been resilience. There is pressure from students, from your own team and from management, and not breaking under that pressure is key to how your team is led and whether it succeeds. I have also learned a lot about how personal relationships affect working relationships, and how important it is to manage them well for a team to function. I have learned to be proactive and to give people autonomy within the space we work in. I am excited that the skills I have picked up will set me up well for the future, and they have made me a more confident person overall."

To incoming leaders, he has the following to say: "Student leadership can feel like a thankless job, and in servant leadership there will be tough times and disagreements. Having the motivation, and understanding why you are doing what you are doing goes a long way towards a successful term and making a real impact in the spaces you are in."

Elections for the next term took place on 17 and 18 September 2026.

Read the original article on UCT.

South Africa: A Delicate Balancing Act As SRC President

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