UCT Students protest: Student power wins

South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma on Friday ruled out university fee increases next year after a week of angry protests by students across the country in the first signs of the post-apartheid ‘Born Free’ generation flexing its muscle.

Police fired rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades at students who hurled rocks and lit fires on the grounds of Union Buildings, where the government has its offices in Pretoria, demanding Zuma come outside and address them.

But security officials feared for his safety, and Zuma remained inside, making the fee freeze announcement to the media instead.

“We decided against it because it was not safe,” a state security official told Reuters. “There were students there with stones.” A second source confirmed the change of plan.

The protest caps a week of angry demonstrations over the cost of university education – prohibitive for many blacks – amid frustration at the inequalities that persist two decades after the end of white-minority rule.

“On the matter at hand we agreed that there will be a zero increase of university fees in 2016,” Zuma said after meeting in private with student leaders and university management.

Some of the more than 12,000 students who gathered at Union Buildings in Pretoria welcomed Zuma’s announcement, but others said the measure fell short of their demand for free education.

“It’s a partial victory. It’s not a victory worthy of celebration. It just means that we are safe for this year,” Busisiwe Mashiqa, 29, a student at Fort Hare University said