Tshwane - Despite government’s concessions regarding higher education institutions fees for 2017, thousands of students protested for free education in Pretoria on Tuesday.
The large crowd of disgruntled students initially marched to the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) campuses in the Pretoria CBD and in Arcadia, east of the city, before heading to the main campus in Pretoria west.
Andile Malefu, a student leader at the TUT campus in Pretoria west said students will air their views, demanding no fee increment but without violence or destruction of their campuses.
“We are not going to disrupt classes. This is not a political university. This is a university which belongs to you and me. We are all paying here and there is no structure which pays your fees,” he said.
“Even if we’re using loans to study, we will have to be paying back those loans when we enter the work environment. We do not want unnecessary disturbances in the universities. We understand the importance of utilising the academic calendar.”
Malefu said some political parties were seeking to hijack the students protest and gain political mileage using the students’ grievances.
“They get their political mandates elsewhere and now they want other disruption classes. We are not going to allow them to disrupt classes. They are not genuine,” said Malefu.
He urged the students to wait until the university makes an announcement on its fees structure for 2017.
On Monday, Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande announced that universities are allowed to decide on and increase their fees for 2017. The increases are however capped at eight percent.
On Tuesday, students at the TUT were roundly rejecting Nzimande’s concessions, particular any suggestion of a fees increase, with some saying government was seeking to divide and weaken the students’ protests for no-fee higher education.
Numerous police offices, some on horseback were milling at several campuses in Pretoria on Tuesday.
African News Agency