Durban - Leaders are taking aim at the parents of protesting university students, accusing them of handing their children over to the state and standing by as the ensuing chaos has led to extensive damage to property at some universities.
King Goodwill Zwelithini, while addressing thousands of people at the Umkhosi Welembe celebration in Durban on Saturday, said parents needed to lead.
And SACP General Secretary Blade Nzimande told SACP members attending the Moses Mabhida Memorial lecture in Pietermaritzburg on Friday that the parents had "pawned" their children off to the state.
"The parents of students in universities are nowhere to be seen when their children are facing off with the managers of the universities and the government," said the king at the Umkhosi Welembe event, which celebrated 200 years since the formation of the Zulu nation and the 45th year of his reign.
"The protesters are destroying the infrastructure that was used and enabled the oppressors to govern us. If we destroy it, it means we will never reach the level where we are able to govern ourselves," said the king.
King Zwelithini said: "Parents need to take their role, no child belongs to the government. It cannot be that the government could talk until the process is finalised and the parents are nowhere. Who do these children belong to?"
Nzimande, who is also the Higher Education Minister, said while speaking in his capacity as SACP general secretary that parents were failing their children and the government.
"Where are the parents when their children are marching for Nzimande? It cannot be that they hand over their children to our institutions and then fold their hands when there are problems."
The recent student anger over tuition fees has been directed at Nzimande after he announced that universities could increase fees for next year, but not by more than 8%.
Nzimande also offered a commitment that the government would pay the increase for students from poor backgrounds.
He said that zero fee increases were not possible, as that would impact on the quality of the work of those universities.
He said the government had done a lot of work to ensure that students received quality education. About 700 000 student in universities would be subsidised and about 600 000 in the former FETs.
He described the leaders of the protest as hired guns for the rich and imperialists.
Nzimande said the students were failing to emulate the sacrifices of the likes of Moses Mabhida, who juggled school and work to put himself through school.
"Some of our students are spoilt, Mabhida started late in school because he had to look after cattle. At times he had to stop studying and go to work where he earned 10 shillings a week so he could put himself through school," he said.
The Mercury