Special series: SU student plenary sitting

SRC budget – addressed by Sinawo Sangovana

By Emma Giles, Zirquinn Phillips and Azile Kraziya  

More than R970 000 is available to the Student Representative Council (SRC). The SRC’s budget was discussed during the second agenda point at the student plenary sitting on 4 March. It was addressed by Sinawo Sangovana, the 2025/2026 Treasurer for the interim SRC. On 14 March, Sangovana was re-elected as the SRC treasurer for the official 2025/2026 SRC term at the executive SRC elections that marked the end of the SRC’s interim status.

At the sitting, Sangovana projected the SRC budget to the room. The budget outlined the funds that each SRC portfolio was allocated for 2025/2026 in comparison to the 2024/2025 SRC term on an Excel spreadsheet.

Sangovana said to Die Matie on 31 March that the portfolio budget allocations “were determined on a needs-based approach, guided by each portfolio’s mandate and its direct impact on the student body”. He said that the process involved the respective portfolio holders, interim SRC executive committee members, expenditure history from the 2024/2025 SRC portfolio budget allocations, the feedback, and priorities of the interim SRC executive committee, and the overall SRC mandate. 

“Each portfolio holder was engaged in the process to ensure that allocations were realistic, purposeful, and aligned to planned activities,” said Sangovana to Die Matie.

Sangovana prefaced his discussion of the budget by saying that any questions regarding the amounts should be directed to the respective SRC members whose budget allocation the students wish to enquire about. 

^{Sinawo Sangovana, the 2025/2026 Treasurer for the interim SRC, presents the 2025/2026 SRC portfolio budget allocations in comparison to the 2024/2025 SRC term on an Excel spreadsheet at the student plenary sitting on 4 March. Photo: Emma Giles}

The total SRC budget amounted to R977 342,72, with 20% of the funds carried over from the previous financial year. The slide read that “this amount consists of the 20% allocated from the previous SRC budget allocation which is R189 345,30 and the 80% of the SRC 2025/26 budget allocation from Student Governance which is R787 979,42”.

^{*Note that the % change values in column five of the table below were not announced by Sangovana at the sitting but calculated by Die Matie on 29 March.}

Die Matie calculated inaccuracies in the percentage change amounts presented by Sangovana at the student plenary sitting on 4 March. 

On 31 March, Sangovana said to Die Matie, “I appreciate Die Matie flagging this. I acknowledge that the percentage increase figures visible during the projection were drawn from the incorrect column. The accurate percentages were in column L, not column G which was displayed at the sitting.” Sangovana said he takes responsibility for that presentation error. 

Rather than sharing the Excel spreadsheet presented at the sitting with Die Matie, Sangovana said that he will provide “students with a formatted PDF version of the budget that reflects the correct figures, an accurate percentage breakdown, and a clear portfolio-by-portfolio narrative” and communicate a release date through official SRC channels.

By date of publication (29 April) no PDF with the correct figures of the SRC portfolio allocations has been officially released to students by Sangovana.

^{Solomzi Mphambo (second from the right), the Speaker of the Student Assembly, attempts to maintain order as students in attendance at the student plenary sitting raise concerns about the 2025/2026 SRC portfolio budget allocations presented by Sinawo Sangovana on the right, the 2025/2026 Treasurer for the interim SRC. Photo: Emma Giles}

Students in attendance at the sitting asked why the Social Impact portfolio was allocated R35 000, which was considerably less than the Visibility and Branding portfolio budget allocation of R91 000.

Sangovana clarified that budgets were allocated according to projects that SRC members wanted to run within the portfolio and the motivation behind it. 

He said the Social Impact portfolio also receives funding from the Centre for the Advancement of Social Impact and Transformation (CASIT). “This partnership means that the portfolio is not solely reliant on its SRC budget allocation, but it can draw on additional institutional support through CASIT,” said Sangovana to Die Matie on 31 March.

Additionally, Sangovana said at the sitting that the Visibility and Branding portfolio budget allocation includes R50 000 for SRC merchandise. 

On 31 March, Sangovana said to Die Matie that merchandise being allocated under this portfolio was newly introduced for the 2025/2026 term and that “it was agreed that the portfolio should be resourced to drive greater engagement and a stronger SRC presence across the student body”. This was based on feedback from the SRC executive committee regarding the previous SRC’s visibility to its constituencies, said Sangovana. 

Also included in the prompt for this agenda point was clarification regarding the budget allocation to the SRC welcoming event or “fun day”. Sangovana said that this event was largely covered by an agreement with Standard Bank. The event was not funded out of the SRC working budget, but R6 964 was taken from the SRC reserve fund to contribute to the event, said Sangovana.

^{Sinawo Sangovana, the 2025/2026 Treasurer for the interim SRC, clarifies information from the portfolio budget allocations that had been queried by students in attendance at the student plenary sitting on 4 March. Photo: Emma Giles}

Sangovana said to Die Matie on 31 March that he would like to “reaffirm his commitment to financial transparency” and that “the student body has a right to know how their funds are allocated and spent”. 

“The Transparency Report I committed to at the plenary sitting, which will be covering detailed expenditure across all SRC portfolios from last term to date, remains in progress and will be released. I will also confirm a timeline for the final 2025/2026 budget publication through official SRC channels,” said Sangovana on 31 March. He also said the portfolio allocations are finalised and “budget transfers between portfolios remain pending due to a delay in the release of funds from the university’s Finance Department”. Once those transfers are processed, he will publish the final budget. 

Sangovana is hoping to release the official SRC 2025/2026 budget in term two of the 2026 academic year and will communicate a confirmed date as soon as it is determined. 

The budget proposals for each portfolio can be found on the SRC SharePoint platform.