S. African university students threaten to disrupt parliament over fee rise

Protesting students in South African universities on Wednesday threatened to disrupt parliament if a tuition fee increase is not cancelled.

Hundreds of students, most of them from the country's renowned University of Cape Town (UCT), were marching from the campus to parliament.

No clashes were reported.

It comes after Minister of Higher Education, Blade Nzimande, on Tuesday reached a deal with universities limiting the fee increase to a maximum of six percent -- an offer yet rejected by students.

The UCT had initially proposed a fee rise of 10.3 percent.

Classes in three universities -- the UCT, the Cape Peninsula University of Technology and Stellenbosch University -- have been suspended due to student protests on campus.

Other major universities across the country also saw protests, some of which have continued for more than a week.

The fee rise was said to be a result of the government reduction in education funding.

The SA National Student Financial Aid Scheme was reported to be short of 51 billion rand (about 3.9 billion U.S. dollars) to fund poor students.

The opposition has blamed that on Nzimande, who has been in office for six years, and has asked him to step down. Enditem