Daso obtained 52.5% of the vote in elections at the university last week, while the ANC-aligned SA Students Congress (Sasco) got only 37%. This was despite the ANC delegating senior leaders, including Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula and Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba to campaign for Sasco.
This is the second university campus that Sasco has lost to Daso. Last year the DA students took control of the SRC at Port Elizabeth's Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.
The ANC's provincial leadership has summoned Sasco's Fort Hare campus leaders and the provincial executive to a meeting tomorrow, where the students will be asked to explain why they performed so dismally at the polls.
ANC provincial secretary Oscar Mabuyane said of the defeat: "It's quite disappointing because Fort Hare is our pride. You cannot complete a conversation about the struggle for liberation without mentioning Fort Hare.
"It is not an easy thing to accept [that we lost] Fort Hare. The institution is a cradle for continental leadership in progressive politics. It's a very sad moment."
Nelson Mandela was a student at Fort Hare, which has produced several other high-profile African leaders, including the ANC's Oliver Tambo, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and PAC founder Robert Sobukwe.
Sasco provincial secretary Yanga Zicina said they viewed their loss to Daso at Fort Hare as part of a learning curve.
"We believe that we might have been caught wanting. But we do not believe that the students totally rejected Sasco. It's merely about their bread and butter issues," Zicina said.
DA youth leader Yusuf Cassim said Daso's immediate mission was to deal with students' pressingissues, which include a lack of funding and residence shortages.
"For us the students' votes are a mandate that we do not take lightly. We have started with exposing what is taking place at the institution," Cassim said.
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