Stay Connected
Atlanta Black Star/Politics/National
BlogsNationalNews

South Africa’s Zuma Freezes Tuition Increase Amidst #FeesMustFall Protests

Posted byBy Zellie Imani | Published on: CommentsComments (0)
feeshavefallen

INTERNATIONAL THEMBA HADEBE / AP

The recent wave of student protests have forced the South African government to halt an increase of university tuition fees.

On Friday, South African President Jacob Zuma announced through a televised statement, a zero increase of university fees in 2016, as thousands of protesters gathered in front of the Union building in the capital Pretoria.

“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,” Zuma said.

Some of the more than 12,000 students who gathered to hear the Presidential address welcomed  the announcement, but others still said the measure did not go far enough.

“The no fee increment is not enough, someone who could not afford fees this year will not afford them next year. The presidency only attended to one demand of the memorandum that was handed to him,” said Wits University student Thabiso Bhengu.

Many other students took to twitter to express their discontent:

Tuition fees vary across universities, but can run as high as 60,000 rand ($4,500) per year for medical students in a country where white South Africans earn six times more than Black South Africans nearly two decades after the end of apartheid.

What initially began as a protest to a 10.5% tuition increase at Wits University, quickly spread to 15 of the 20 South African universities, and developed demands to end the exclusion of poor Black South Africans from receiving higher education.

In South Africa, 79% of the population is Black, while 9% is white. In 2008,  31,527 white South Africans were awarded degrees, while only 36,970 Blacks South Africans graduated with degrees.

To combat the disparities, a coalition of various universities calling itself the National Shutdown Collective issued this memorandum on Wednesday:

Zuma had been scheduled to address the students directly, but security deemed it unsafe and police fired rubber bullets to drive protesters away from the grounds around the president’s office.

Students vowed to continue the protest movement to provide equal access to education.

Independent journalism still matters.

We hope this story was worth your time. For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed Black-owned and independently run. We didn't get here by waiting on ad budgets that were never built to prioritize us. Our readers did that.

Corporate support for Black media has always been thin. Outlets like ours get roughly 1% of the $170 billion spent on U.S. advertising each year, and that margin is shrinking further as advertisers walk back the DEI-linked commitments they made in 2020. That's the backdrop. It's not why we're asking.

The wider picture isn't any steadier. Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under, it's rarely the ones built to center a Black perspective from the ground up that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Give once Give monthly Support another way

Related Stories

Back to top