{"id":20815,"date":"2015-10-24T06:47:01","date_gmt":"2015-10-24T06:47:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/south-africa-freezes-tuition-fees-after-student\/"},"modified":"2015-10-24T06:46:26","modified_gmt":"2015-10-24T06:46:26","slug":"south-africa-freezes-tuition-fees-after-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/south-africa-freezes-tuition-fees-after-student\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa Freezes Tuition Fees After Student Protests"},"content":{"rendered":"
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{ {{JOHANNESBURG \u2014 President Jacob G. Zuma agreed on Friday to freeze tuition fees at South Africa\u2019s public universities, yielding to widening protests by students who streamed into the capital, Pretoria, by the thousands and protested outside his office.}} }<\/p>\n

In a short televised statement, Mr. Zuma said he had made the decision after meeting with student leaders and top university administrators, but did not elaborate on his thinking. \u201cGovernment understands the difficulty faced by students from poor households and urges all affected to allow the process to unfold to find long-term solutions in order to ensure access to education by all students,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In the largest protest organized by university students this year, thousands from campuses across the country rallied Friday at the Union Buildings, the seat of power in South Africa, chanting and holding signs demanding a freeze on tuition and criticizing Mr. Zuma\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n

Most students protested peacefully. But some started fires and tore parts of a fence around the Union Buildings, hurling rocks at riot police officers and demanding that Mr. Zuma address them directly. The police responded by firing stun grenades and using a water cannon to disperse the crowds, and unfurled barbed wire to prevent protesters from moving inside.<\/p>\n

Students celebrated outside the Union Buildings as they learned about the tuition freeze.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so excited,\u201d said Nonsikelelo Nako, 24, a student from the University of South Africa who participated in the march. \u201cWe\u2019ve been crying for this. Our struggle at the end of the day became a new freedom for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Protests have erupted across many of South Africa\u2019s public universities this year, with anger focusing on the deep-rooted economic and racial cleavages remaining a generation after the end of apartheid.<\/p>\n

But in recent days, the protests have spread outside the campuses, as students have leveled their ire directly at the government. Students and police officers clashed outside the Parliament building in Cape Town, and students marched on Wednesday to the headquarters here of the African National Congress, the liberation movement that has governed the country since the end of apartheid in 1994.<\/p>\n

Ramabina Mahapa, 23, president of the University of Cape Town\u2019s student government, said he and others had initially taken their demands about freezing fees to university administrators.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted them to put pressure on government,\u201d said Mr. Mahapa before he was scheduled to join a student delegation to meet Mr. Zuma. \u201cThen we quickly realized that their hands were tied and that in fact they were to a certain extent sympathetic towards us. Then our efforts changed and were now directed towards government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clashes between the police and some students continued even after Mr. Zuma made his announcement, suggesting lingering anger at the government. The protest in the last few days widened to include students who had not participated in previous demonstrations.<\/p>\n

Thando Khumalo, 25, a communications major at the University of Johannesburg, said she first became involved on Wednesday. Ms. Khumalo said she grew angry last week as discussions over the tuition increases were going nowhere. Her parents, who work as teachers, have paid her fees but would struggle to put her younger brother through college, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when I realized we\u2019re bring robbed here,\u201d Ms. Kkumalo said after fleeing from the police\u2019s stun guns and water cannon. \u201cThat\u2019s when I realized I needed to be part of this.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are struggling to pay for higher education in South Africa,\u201d she added. \u201cIt\u2019s become a commodity where only the elites are able to access something that\u2019s able to move us from \u2014 let\u2019s say if you come from the middle class \u2014 move you up higher so that you can do well for your family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Referring to the post-apartheid nation of opportunity and equality that the African National Congress had pledged to create, she said, \u201cWhy are we still struggling after we were promised so much in 1994?\u201d<\/p>\n

Though many South African blacks share deep dissatisfaction with the governing party, there have been few signs so far that the student protests are drawing wide, active support. Unions have expressed solidarity but have yet to offer assistance. Neither have the students received support yet from the vast majority of poor blacks who remain the A.N.C.\u2019s backbone of support.<\/p>\n

The A.N.C. and the country\u2019s two main opposition parties have tried to jump onto the protest movement. But students firmly rejected the overtures.<\/p>\n

After meeting with students on Wednesday, Gwede Mantashe, the group\u2019s secretary general, urged party members to join the march in Pretoria on Thursday. \u201cIt should not be seen as a march that is against the A.N.C.,\u201d Mr. Mantashe said.<\/p>\n

But because the organization has nearly single-handedly shaped post-apartheid South Africa, the march on Friday and the yearlong campus protests have amounted to an indictment of it. The A.N.C., especially under Mr. Zuma, has come to be seen as a corrupt political machine more interested in enriching its members than in lifting up the poor blacks who supported it before and after apartheid.<\/p>\n

Though the party\u2019s national standing remains unchallenged, its support has been declining. Party leaders have publicly expressed fears that the A.N.C. might suffer significant losses in next year\u2019s elections in metropolitan areas, home to the kind of educated, middle-class blacks that have been leaving the party.<\/p>\n

Universities, which say they are underfunded by the government, had proposed significant increases. The University of the Witwatersrand, a flash point of the demonstrations, had planned a 10.5 percent increase in tuition for next year. In 2015, tuition at the university ranged from $2,400 to $3,500 for a full year at the undergraduate level.<\/p>\n

Early this week, Blade Nzimande, the minister of higher education, offered to cap increases for 2016 at 6 percent. But students insisted on no increase.<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{ {{JOHANNESBURG \u2014 President Jacob G. Zuma agreed on Friday to freeze tuition fees at South Africa\u2019s public universities, yielding to widening protests by students who streamed into the capital, Pretoria, by the thousands and protested outside his office.}} }<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000069817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[100],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-20815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-africa","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000069817,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20815.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20815.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20815.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20815.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20815.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20815.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000069817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20815"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=20815"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=20815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}