Roundup: Student protests cripple S. African tertiary institutions

Students vowed on Tuesday to continue their protest against proposed fee increases at South African universities, despite assurance that all proposed increases would be capped at six percent.

Universities had planned to increase fees by 10 to 50 percent, triggering widespread protests across the country.

The protests have prompted a number of universities to suspend lectures and shut down campuses.

At the University of Cape Town, police had to use teargas and grenades to disperse protesting students staging a sit-in inside the main administration building.

A number of students were bundled into police vans and taken to a local police station.

Class at the Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg also came to a standstill as protesting students disrupted learning to force the university to scrap its proposed fee increase for 2016.

On average, the current proposed fee increases, including tuition, accommodation and books, would cost student nearly 8,000 U.S. dollars per year.

Some universities also require students to pay 50 percent of the amount before being registered.

Former President of the Students Representative Council at Witwatersrand University, Mcebo Dlamini, said this is unacceptable.

"They are using exorbitant fees and ridiculous upfront payment to deny a black child an opportunity to access higher education. We are saying those fees must fall because they are a resemblance of apartheid," said Dlamini.

At urgent meeting on Tuesday, Minister of Higher Education and Training Blade Nzimande and stakeholders in the universities agreed that all fees increases across universities be capped at six percent.

Nzimande said the agreement is crucial in dealing with the current situation.

"The stakeholders agreed to encourage their respective constituencies to engage in institutional negotiations in universities with a view to achieve a fee increase of not higher than a Consumer Price Index, which is six percent for 2016," the minister said.

"The representatives encourage their constituencies to create an enabling condition or environment for the immediate resumption of the academic program in our institutions," he said.

Tebogo Thothela, who represented the protesting students at the stakeholders meeting, said he was fully aware that convincing students to accept the six percent increase would not be easy.

"We cannot guarantee what the reaction will be because the power lies within the institutions. Collectively we have got the difficult task of going back and saying this is the position for now in 2016," said Thothela.

Witwatersrand University Vice Chancellor Adam Habib welcomed the agreement, saying, "I think it is a very productive way going forward and it enables at least a possibility of finding some solutions to the challenges that we have had in the last couple of days."

The universities and the department of education will work together to mitigate the impact of this situation, he said.

However, many students say they will not move an inch from their demand for a zero percent increase.

"Many students were already struggling to pay the current fees, how are they expected to manage the six percent increase.

"We expect them to reduce the fees not to increase," said Dlamini.

Despite the agreement, students have threatened a national shutdown of universities under one slogan: "FeesMustFall." Endit