Abstract
Since 1976 when school students in Soweto took to the streets in active defiance of the apartheid
state, students as a political constituency have always been admired, noted and feared for the political positions
they have taken and campaigns launched. South African student organisations in the 1980s and 1990s a ligned
themselves with mass democratic movements and engaged with and shaped their agendas. Commentators suggest
however, that the nature and character of student organisations have changed in post-apartheid South Africa, and
consequently, also students’ interest in ‘getting involved’. With regard to SRCs, while many authors argue that
SRCs are no longer a ‘revolutionary force’ and have become either retrogressive or disempowered, others suggest
that more effort needs to be made to understand the content of ‘new’ SRCs in post-apartheid South Africa and their
appeal to diverse student populations. This paper seeks to establish the attitudes of University of Johannesburg
(UJ) students towards voting for, and supporting, the Students Representative Council (SRC), and, for involving
themselves in student politics at UJ. In making sense of students’ perceptions, the paper probes differences and
similarities in terms of four key factors: gender, race, year of study, and residential background.