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31 August 2020 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa
SRC election term extended

SRC elections 2020/21 were due to take place before the end of August 2020 as prescribed by the ISRC constitution. However, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the consequent lockdown regulations and extension of the UFS 2020 academic year, the current SRC term will be extended until March 2021.

The decision to extend the term of the SRC was taken by the Rectorate following a recommendation made by the Division of Student Affairs (DSA), after consultation with
the ISRC. 

The consultation process with the ISRC produced three options:
  • Proceed with SRC elections in August 2020;
  • Extend the current SRC term to align with the extended 2020 academic year; or
  • Elect a Transitional Student Council (TSC) from September 2020 to March 2021.
In view of the above, and considering current conditions amid the coronavirus pandemic,
online SRC elections are scheduled for March 2021. 

This extension implies that the terms of all the sub-structures of the ISRC will be extended accordingly.

This communication serves as official notice to the Student Body about the extension of the
2019/2020 ISRC term and all its sub-structures as per the prescripts of the ISRC Constitution.

The DSA, with particular reference to the Student Governance Office (SGO), remains
committed to engaging with all parties of legitimate interest about matters arising from,
related to, and/or about SRC elections in all its permutations. 

Should you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact the SGO:
Coordinator: Kamogelo Dithebe (DithebeKS@ufs.ac.za)
Faculty Coordinator: (MunzheleleD@ufs.ac.za)
Administrator: Rethabile Motseki (MotsekiR@ufs.ac.za)

News Archive

Inaugural lecture explores the compatibility of commercial certainty and constitutionalism
2015-10-15

From the left: Prof Caroline Nicholson,
Prof Elizabeth Snyman van Deventer,
Justice Malcolm Wallis and Dr Lis Lange.

Justice Malcolm Wallis presented his inaugural lecture, entitled “Compatibility of commercial certainty and constitutionalism”, to the Faculty of Law on 17 September, 2015. The occasion was attended by faculty staff, students, and senior members of the Bloemfontein judiciary.

In her welcoming remarks, Prof Caroline Nicholson, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the UFS,  expressed the immense pride the faculty has in hosting such an occasion, and the remarkable work of Justice Wallis in the South African legal fraternity over his forty-year career.

Justice Wallis spoke of the constitution’s important role in ensuring that the law in commercial matters is enforced fairly without the prejudice or undue influence from the desire to obtain or preserve personal advantage. “Try, if you can, to conceive of a society in which commercial relationships are enforced and enforceable purely as a matter of discretion. Ask yourselves:  how would such a society function?” he said.

He reiterated that the role and the rule of law is to guide and protect parties in commercial transactions. It has considerable impact on society in how it is enforced. “Commercial disputes may seem to involve only the parties to the proceedings, but when they involve significant changes to established commercial law, their impact is inevitably wider. Such changes affect other agreements, other relationships, underlying financing transactions, and, in our modern world, contracts of insurance and reinsurance. The latter at least will always have an international dimension,” he said.

He explored specific judgements and the role the concept of “Ubuntu” played in delivering them, the fair enforcement of commercial law, and how this should be an integral part of South African law under the constitution.

 In closing, Justice Wallis stated that “in principle, the existence of a constitution and constitutional rights need not destabilise commercial law, or the reasonable expectations of business people.”

Justice Wallis has received numerous accolades locally and internationally during his long career, including his appointment as a Professor Extraordinary in the Department of Mercantile Law at the University of the Free State in 2014.



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