Students protest over planned increases in tuition fees outside South Africa's Parliament in Cape Town, October 21, 2015. Riot police fired tear gas and stun grenades on Wednesday at hundreds of protesting students who stormed the parliament precinct in Cape Town to try to disrupt the reading of Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene's interim budget. REUTERS/Mark Wessels

How the world sees us: Chaotic, ham-fisted, brutal – pics from Parliament

The pictures from yesterday's student protest at Parliament illustrate a boiling over of emotion from one of the most volatile sectors of SA's population.

Published on:

22 Oct 2015, 3:16 pm

Yesterday was not one of the South Africa's better days. Frustration at the consequences of ongoing mismanagement, corruption and poor political leadership boiled over as Cape Town university students used the most public of platforms, the national Parliament, to air their grievances. They rallied around the banner of hikes in tuition, but the unhappiness goes much deeper. As the dust settles, what the world is seeing are the kind of pictures from South Africa last aired during Apartheid – armed Policemen, mostly white, challenged by young students, mostly black. The pictures tell their own story. A sad tale amplified by the reality – as the Financial Times of London is telling its millions of influential readers today. – Alec Hogg

Police clash with students outside South Africa's Parliament in Cape Town, October 21, 2015. Riot police fired tear gas and stun grenades on Wednesday at hundreds of protesting students who stormed the parliament precinct in Cape Town to try to disrupt the reading of Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene's interim budget. REUTERS/Mark Wessels

By Andrew England of the Financial Times of London

South Africa's parliament descended into chaos on Wednesday as security personnel expelled opposition MPs from the house and police clashed with students in parliamentary grounds as protests over planned increases in university tuition fees overshadowed the medium-term budget speech.

Police in riot gear fired stun grenades as they forcibly dispersed university students who were part of nationwide demonstrations that had led to the closure of the country's top universities. Clashes between police and students continued in and around the parliamentary grounds in Cape Town in scenes that will shock the nation.

Students protest over planned increases in tuition fees outside South Africa's Parliament in Cape Town, October 21, 2015. REUTERS/Mark Wessels

The protests began last week and are part of a wave of student activism not witnessed in the post-apartheid era that has swept across South Africa. The government and university chancellors on Tuesday said fee increases would be capped at 6 per cent for the year. But students, who say the fee increases would exclude poorer, mainly black people, from higher education, are pushing for zero increases.

@alechogg Any investors considering developments in South Africa is by now firmly convinced to leave SA alone for a decade or two.
— Ou Oom Bitterbek! (@oubitterbek) October 22, 2015