Food for thought

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Published on Tuesday, 27 September 2011 08:44

Written by Michael Williams

In the “Farewell message of 2011 SRC President,” Amanda Ngwenya states that in 2011 the SRC saw to it that residence students received “improved catering services” in addition to “a fairer deal for meal vouchers”. These changes have certainly occurred, but there is little to no evidence to suggest that the SRC played any role in securing them. 

These changes were primarily brought about through the hard work of residence catering representatives who were involved in talks with Fedics throughout the year. The SRC has no right or place to claim such successes as their own, particularly when one considers that they were hardly even aware of negotiations.

Gokul Nair, the head of the Committee of Residence Catering Representatives, and Sandisiwe Yengeni, the deputy head of the Committee of Residence Catering Representatives, can attest to and provide evidence of, in the form of minutes of meetings, the fact that there were no SRC members present at meetings of the Residence Catering Forum meetings (which involve Fedics, UCT catering staff and residence catering representatives), despite the fact that the SRC Residences Representative Khanya Gwaza is a member of the forum and is obliged to be present.

It was at these meetings that representatives put forward demands to Fedics for the increased value of vouchers and overall improvement of catering services, particularly food quality. There were four of these meetings in the course of the year, in addition to multiple informal meetings between UCT staff, Fedics and representatives, that the SRC failed to attend. 

In addition to the meetings regarding these issues, there were many emails sent between UCT staff, Fedics and residences, all of which were copied to Gwaza, the holder of the SRC portfolio tasked with dealing with such issues, which received no input from the SRC. In addition to not joining the email dialogue between the parties regarding these issues, Gwaza also failed to respond to at least four emails regarding the issues and requesting input from the SRC sent to him personally. 

At least four other members of the SRC were notified of the problems of communication and the issues regarding residence catering, with all of them opting not to take up the matter personally. 

It is with this in mind that I was shocked and angered by the SRC’s attempt to claim the changes that have come about within the catering system as one of their own triumphs. The changes to catering came about as a result of the hard work of several individuals and groups with little or no input from the 2011 SRC. The fact that the SRC is scrambling to claim such achievements as their own is a clear indicator of their inefficiency.