Volume 36 Number 07 - University of the Witwatersrand

ol9t3: August. The Students Action Front, headed by PhillipPowell is set up at Pietermaritzburg University. The SAF spends R I8O0 before it is even formally constituted.It becomes clear that the similarities between the SAF and theSMA are not co-incidental. Their members have been in contact,and their manifestos are identical.ol9E4: March. C'r1'stal is seen rvearing a Wits T-shirt and NationalParty colours at the Norrvood by-election in Johannesburg. He getspunchcd in the eyc by the ex-ma1'or Monty Sklaar alier allegedlyinsulting his rvil'e.o1984: April. The National Students Federation is launched. ltspresident, Russel Crystal. is completing his lOth year of study atWits. He has been given the privilege of continuing his studies whilecompleting his military service.Crystal has recently missed 2 disciplinary hearings after allegedlythreatening a member of staff.Prog-soc, the PFP youth on campus, says it is commonknowledge in PFP circles that Crystal is a National Party Youthrurganizer in thc Bezr.rrdenhout constitue nc1 . L:rst year at the'Berge'by-elections. he rvas scen supporting the National Party. At the Pressconlerencc. Crystal claimcd that the NSF did not align itself withanv political parn'.Vice-President, Phillip Powell has recently resigned his positionon the Maritzburg S RC. H is resignation was accepted on the basis ofincompetence, and Powell was publicly censured by the entire PM BUniversity student bodyArthur Kemp. another NSF executive mernber, was elected as ajoke candidate in the l98l /82 UCT SRC elections.The following year he was not re-elected, once his conscrvativepolitics had become known to students.Thus, the respecti\ e histories (or non-histories) of the constituentorganisations o1'the NSI-. as *'ellas those of its exec. memberscastsan interesting Iight on the rhetoric of the NSF.o April 1975: Cantpus lndependent, a right-wrng weexiynewspaper appears on campus. lt refuses to reveal its financialbackers. Arthur McGiven, a BOSS spy on campus later claims that itwas funded by BOSS. ln 1978, it is revealed in Parliament that thenewspaper was directly funded by Mulder's department ofInformation.o 1978: The Modern Conservative Students' Movement (MCSM)is launchcd rvith an inaugural dinner addressed b1, ts.| \/orste r. Thisorganisation atttempts to get a national movement off the ground.but their attempts are thtvartcd rvhen Brian Hack. a collaboratorIrom UC'f, is arrested in connection *'ith the ailempted shooting ofColin Eglin. then leader ol the opposition.'l'he MCSM loses whatlittlc support thet harc. and e'uentualll collapses.o 1980: The MCSM's constitution is revived by the newly-formedAssociation of Moderate Students (AMS). In August, they adopttheir present title. the Students' Moderate Alliance (SMA).o l98l: February. The Sunda.t' E"rpress reveals that the SMA'snewsletter Standord is funded by Mr PA Clarke, MD of theconrpany that controlle