For days, hundreds of demonstrators blocked entrances to the university, known as Wits, forcing administration to cancel lectures and eventually suspending the fee increase. State security looks at domestic threats in South Africa.
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Thousands of university students protested nationwide all week to call for cancellation of a tuition increase set to go into effect next year.
Police fire stun grenades after more than 1000 students breach parliament precicnt in Cape Town and refuse to leave. CNN could not reach police officials by phone.
The ANC pulled out its election truck and seemed to be wiring a loud speaker, but the students refused to let the party’s secretary-general Gwede Mantashe address them.
Instead, they gave him a memorandum outlining their demands.
Thousands of angry South African university students capped a week of protests on Friday with a march on the buildings in Pretoria where President Jacob Zuma has his offices.
Universities had proposed that tuition fees be increased by 10-12 percent in 2016, arguing that they needed the increase to keep up with worldwide standards but the government capped the increase at 6 percent.
The accused have been released from police custody, and the case postponed to February.
Those charged include the 63-year-old parent of a student at the University of Cape Town, the privately owned News24 site reports.
Correspondents say the protests show growing disillusionment with the ANC, which took power after minority rule ended in 1994, over high levels of poverty, unemployment and corruption in government. The protests against fees follow on from demonstrations in September at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Westville over an increase in the pass mark required for financial aid students.
“Government 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 our students”.
Correspondents say his intervention shows how seriously he is taking the protests.
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The campaign for affordable education has prompted many white students to stand with their black colleagues, as have numerous academics and African National Congress stalwarts, including Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and Nelson Mandela’s close confidant and friend Ahmed Kathrada.
