Wits students vow to close university after council snub

Twenty-three South African students at the University of Cape Town were arrested Tuesday as protests hit more universities across the country over plans to hike tuition fees.

Meanwhile, at Stellensbosch University, riot police were called to campus to suppress student protests there.

Students barricaded the entrances at University of Cape Town (UCT) and refused to leave, while their peers at Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), where protests dubbed #FeesMustFall on Twitter began on October 13, overturned vehicles driving into the campus, local media reported. “Victory is certain. Wits University will remain closed up until our grievances are heard”.

This current hike in university tuition fees has been viewed in a few camps as another ploy to further reduce the number of black students who are from moderately poor families.

Labour Party tertiary education spokesperson David Cunliffe speaks to students at a University of Auckland protest.

The league demanded proper consultation and practical consideration of the realities faced by young people in determining fee increases.

Reports said police moved to arrest students who blocked a road leading to the institution’s upper campus early on Tuesday morning. When students shut down the Wits Medical School in Parktown yesterday, cleaners were part of the group.

Around 100 students gathered at the university’s quad on Monday to protest a proposed 3 per cent rise in course fees.

Protesters had said they can not afford the proposed increase.

They include austerity measures, discounts for National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) students and those who are financially stressed, waiving the upfront fee for NSFAS students (which Wits said was already policy) and other qualifying students, directing vice-chancellor Adam Habib’s performance bonus to help ease the student burden, and engaging with the government.

This follows protests at various institutions of higher learning across the country in the past few days over fee increases for next year.

It said in a statement that it respected the right to protest but described the demonstrators’ actions as “unlawful”.

“We need an indication from him as a minister whether he can clearly render issues of higher education or not”.

Universities should show “greater caution and sensitivity” when setting fees in order to “minimise the detrimental impact on poor students”, he said on Monday.

Nzimande, the minister for higher education, said capping the fee increases at six percent would be crucial for the “immediate resumption of the academic programme in our institutions”.

At a meeting in a secret location that evening, the university’s council was expected to raise fees by an additional $200.