You are a full-time undergraduate student at Wits University. You come from a working-class family and rely on NSFAS funding to cover tuition and living expenses. You stay in a student residence but often face food insecurity, overcrowding, unreliable Wi-Fi, and must top up accommodation fees because of the R50 000 NSFAS cap.

As SRC elections approach, two competing visions dominate the campaigns:

• Activist vision: The SRC’s role should be to mobilise students — organising protests, challenging university management, and aligning with national movements (such as Fees Must Fall or calls for decolonisation).

• Welfare-focused vision: The SRC’s role should be to directly improve student life — ensuring smooth registration, resolving housing and funding crises, distributing food parcels, and lobbying for day-to-day student welfare.

In South Africa, two major governance trajectories are unfolding. Judicial independence has been advanced through a 2025 transformation granting the judiciary full institutional and financial autonomy, including control over its own budget and the rollout of Court Online systems to improve transparency and combat corruption. At the same time, the executive reform agenda has been pursued through initiatives such as Operation Vulindlela’s infrastructure and market liberalisation drive, the Cabinet Reform Package, and the Zero-Tolerance Corruption Bill—measures aimed at accelerating growth, reshaping governance, and strengthening accountability.

For the purposes of this debate, "growing up" refers to the social expectation that individuals should abandon traits, relationships, or interests associated with childhood as they age. This includes, but is not limited to:

- The stigmatisation of "childish" behaviour (e.g., playfulness, emotional openness, imagination)

- Pressure to outgrow childhood friendships and relationships

- Dismissal of childhood interests (e.g., cartoons, video games, toys) as inappropriate for adults

Traditional media outlets (such as television, newspapers, and radio) are legally required to follow strict advertising and ethical standards. For example, they must disclose paid promotions, avoid false or misleading claims, and uphold codes of conduct regarding harmful or offensive content.