With nominations for the Lincoln SU elections now open, current President Kudzai Muzangaza chats to The Linc‘s Editor, Liam O’Dell, about his time in the role.
In the 34-minute interview, Kudzai said the he has ‘learnt a great deal’ since becoming President last year.
“You realise a lot about yourself. You become a lot more self-confident in the decisions that you make and you mature very quickly as a person within this role,” he said.
Elected in February last year, Kudzai’s manifesto pledges included aiming to ensure a ‘strong and stable’ relationship ‘between the student body and the individuals who represent it’.
It also went on to add: “I aim to solidify and ensure transparency and accessibility to the democratic processes that underpin the workings of the SU.”
Also in the interview, the SU President went on to defend his decision to privately respond to an open letter calling for a ‘full explanation’ behind the rejection of a motion on free speech, despite the issue attracting local and national press attention last year.
The response was later leaked to The Linc and published in an article in August.
He told The Linc: “If we had students coming in and asking us these type of questions, of course I would openly respond to those students and I think that’s what I did. I think that’s what the Executive Committee when we made that decision, that’s exactly what we did.
“I can sit here right now and speak to you openly about this, knowing that this will go out to a lot of students and I can address these issues because I know, as you quoted me in that ASM, the matter has been put to bed because we’ve not had the same issues that we had last year,” he went on to add.
Towards the end of the interview, Kudzai said he ‘couldn’t have asked for a better team to work with’ when it came to working with Vice Presidents Sophia, Connor, Tommy and Luke.
“Every single Sabbatical Officer is incredibly hard-working. They’re absolutely dedicated to each of the causes that they have,” he said.
The full interview can be watched on our YouTube channel below:
Excerpts from the interview will also be published in our next print edition, which is expected to come out sometime next month.