This comes after students from University of the Western Cape, University of Cape Town and Cape Peninsula University of Technology marched to parliament threatening to disrupt Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene’s midterm budget speech.
The protesters made their way down to parliament this morning in buses, and they were expected to disrupt the midterm budget speech.
Lectures in six provinces have been suspended due to the continued fee hike protests.
Protests against proposed fee increases started at Witwatersrand University last Wednesday and spread to other universities.
Wits students also demanded that the university stop outsourcing of services and called for better pay for workers at the institution.
Some academic staff have joined the student protests.
Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande’s announcement Tuesday that an agreement had been reached to cap fee increases at six percent was met with anger from protesters. The students rejected Nzimande’s announcement and vowed to continue protesting for a no fee increase.
Meanwhile, the African National Congress condemns in the harshest possible terms the opportunistic tendencies of EFF which led to the disruption of the National Assembly today, read the press statement.
“The outright rejection of Floyd Shivambu today was the clearest message yet from students that they are not inspired by the EFF’s hooliganism and anarchy.
For the EFF to believe that they would endear themselves to the protesting students by trying to collapse the sitting of Parliament and prevent the students from hearing the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement was a miscalculation and naïve on its part.
Students can never be fooled by futile attempts by the likes of the EFF and DA to turn genuine student issues into political football.”
