Wits EFF Students Command (EFFSC) and the Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA) were involved in a scuffle on Tuesday over Wits SRC Twitter account due to what both parties cited as political bitterness from either side.
“It is political jealousy and pettiness so that we may look incompetent,” said Sandla Mtotywa, the EFFSC led Wits SRC spokesperson.
Whereas PYA’s spokesperson suggested that, “[it was] to sabotage the archives of the work that PYA has done in the past 10 years.”
The scuffle unfolded on Twitter when EFFSC asked people to follow a new Wits SRC account, claiming that PYA refused to hand over the login details of the existing account.
Please note that the WITS SRC has a new twitter page due to the previous SRC refusing to handing over login details. We apologise for the inconvenience. Follow @Wits_SRC
— Wits EFF (@WitsEFF) January 2, 2018
PYA then responded by claiming to have rightfully given the account details to EFFSC, attaching a screenshot of WhatsApp messages where the EFFSC confirm to have gained access to the account in November.
You guys had the access to the account and everything was handed over there's proof, don't involve us in your mess of the account. pic.twitter.com/vec9gBvEo6
— Wits PYA (@WitsPYA) January 2, 2018
However, the EFFSC quickly responded by stating that they have been asking the PYA for the account details for three weeks, and that the account was shortly deactivated after they had access to it.
You handed over the account after 3 weeks of battling with you and then you deactivated the account before we could change the passwords and recovery email address👀👀👀 https://t.co/5I3TbXLToc
— Wits EFF (@WitsEFF) January 2, 2018
Wits PYA spokesperson, who did not want to be identified, told The Open Journal that the account and all of its details were handed over to the EFFSC on 27th November 2017, but the outgoing SRC members could no longer access the account as the details were changed by EFFSC.
PYA’s spokesperson claimed to have no knowledge of how the account was deactivated, and is certain that it was not the PYA who deactivated it. “It can never be that we would destroy an account we built for 10 years,” the spokesperson said.
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Mtotywa said the EFFSC did retrieve the account in November, but the PYA deactivated it as they still had the login details. “That’s why [we] decided to start a new account now in January, since [we] had to wait 30 days for the domain to be available again,” said Mtotywa.
The EFFSC led Wits SRC spokesperson further stated that a new account could have been created sooner, but there was a concern that the existing account might be reactivated after the EFFSC created a new one.
Wits EFFSC was elected as the University’s SRC last year when it won 12 out of the available 15 seats in the council.
(Contact Nkosana Langa: nkosanajusticelanga@gmail.com; +27 81 213 5673)
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