Police Fire Stun Grenades At Students In South Africa

Students from Wits and the University of Johannesburg marched in their thousands through South Africa’s commercial capital on Thursday, October 22.

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They marched to Luthuli House, the headquarters of the ANC, where they handed a list of demands to officials.

The students who were protesting against fee increases allegedly hurled stones at police guarding the union buildings ahead of an address by president Zuma.


Reuters reports that a few students pushed through a cordon before being pushed back by anti-riot police who also tried to douse the fires with water cannons.

The students who danced around the union buildings were heard chanting: “we the students dream of free education, we are not afraid of the police, our fight will win.”

One student who spoke in anonymity, said: “He’s not taking us seriously, we’ve been here for a while.”
The students’ protest which has lasted all week long, has been termed the first signs of  ” a flex of muscles by the post-apartheid ‘Born Free’ generation.”

The demonstration caps a week of angry march over the cost of university education, a development which some citizens see as prohibitive for many blacks.

This comes amid frustration at the inequalities that persist two decades after the end of white-minority rule.

The universities are saying that they need higher fees to keep up standards, thereby urging the government to find the extra money.

On the other hand, the government which subsidises universities, said it could not afford the free education that students are demanding.

Earlier on, a statement by the presidency disclosed that: “Zuma was meeting in private with student leaders and university management to discuss the current countrywide impasse between universities and students regarding the proposed annual fee increments.”


However, at about 3pm, President Zuma announced that there would be no university fee increases for 2016.

Zuma said: “On the matter at hand, we agreed that there will be a 0% increase of university fees in 2016.”

“We have agreed that the Vice Chancellors will extend the time of the examinations period.”
There is a variations in tuition fees across South African universities, though sometimes it can run as high as 60,000 rand (N874,583) per year for medical students.

According to official figures, white households still earn six times more than black households in the country.