Within the ANC, President Jacob Zuma enjoys an image of exercising absolute control – the Zulu chieftain with his hands tightly on the levers of power. It has taken barely a week of student protest to shatter those perceptions. After their first tentative steps, student leaders have grown ever bolder, their courage strengthened by an almost instant Presidential cave-in during a meeting over a proposed inflation-beating hike in fees. Winning such an easy victory has, logically, fuelled ambitions. Now the student leaders are demanding not just that there is no increase in fees, but that tertiary education becomes free. And they appear determined to disrupt the establishment until they get their way. Zuma’s rent-reaping acolytes within both Government and business must be wondering what possessed them to back such a timid horse. – Alec Hogg Â
From Agence France-Presse
South African campuses closed Monday, many for a second week, as students refused to end protests despite a government decision to scrap the tuition fee hikes that triggered nationwide demonstrations.
Student leaders have vowed further action to push for other demands, including universal free education.
Police last week fired rubber bullets and tear gas at tens of thousands of students gathered outside government headquarters in Pretoria as protests over the proposed fee hikes turned violent.
Max Price, the University of Cape Town (UCT) vice-chancellor, said the campus would be closed all week, as students had not committed to ending protests and the disruption of lectures.
“I believe no purpose will be served by attempting to keep the university open,” he said in a statement.
A number of universities, including Wits and UCT remain closed today after students decided to continue with their Fees Must Fall protest.
— SAfm news (@SAfmnews) October 26, 2015
Price added there had been “diminishing investments by government in higher education over the past five years” as he praised “the courage and tenacity” of the student protesters.
The University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg, the centre of recent protests, was also shut on Monday.
Wits Vice-Chancellor Adam Habib criticised the students’ decision to continue protesting.
Read also: Makgoba: Student protests leadership failure – a ’picnic’ of what’s to come
Habib said disruption of lectures and exams would “only further entrench and deepen the inequalities in our society.”
Public universities in South Africa, although funded by the state, are independent and have the power to determine their own fees.
Read also:Â Matthew Lester: University out of reach. Current fee model unsustainable.
The students argue that higher fees would force poorer students out of the education system.
The University of Pretoria, Fort Hare and University of the Western Cape were also shut Monday.
© 1994-2015 Agence France-Presse
WITS SRC statement
