Students from three South African universities on Monday shut down their schools in protest against the proposed hike in tuition fees that is slated to commence in 2016. The protests started at the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) last week Wednesday when university authorities announced plans to increase tuition fees by 10% in 2016. Students of the University of Cape Town and Rhodes University on Monday joined the protests, blocking roads leading to the campus and disrupting lectures. The students argued that this decision would mostly favor non-black students and would reduce the number of indigenous South Africans in schools.

Inequality 

These protests highlight that inequality is still very much a reality in the country. University participation for blacks in South Africa between the ages of 18 and 29 went up from 2.8% in 2002 by a meager 0.6% to 3.4% in 2014. In contrast, whites of the same age range had a university participation of 15.6% in 2002 to 23.3 % on 2014.

This current hike in university tuition fees has been viewed in some camps as another ploy to further reduce the number of black students who are from moderately poor families. Some others censured the University arguing “They [the university] fund research that tells us Africans have brains the size of oranges. They fund Homo naledi causes; but students who need money to study and eat must suffer.”  Could these protests signal the beginning of a revolution in South Africa, like the Soweto uprising in 1976?

South Africa’s investment in education

The University of Wits has come out to justify its decision. Speaking last week, Chief Financial Officer, Linda Jarvis said the South African government had reduced funding to universities and therefore, they had to find somewhere to cut back. This also highlights some of the short-comings of the Zuma-led administration in South-Africa. South Africa’s university funding is 0.6% of the GDP of the country, less than that of Russia, India, Saudi Arabia and Argentina. While tuition fees in South African universities have been increasing over the years, government funding to universities have relatively not kept up.

Some musicians and other South Africans have begun to garner attention to the protests with posts on social media using the hashtag #Feesmustfall. Below are some of the tweets:

https://twitter.com/MapsMaponyane/status/656481806477340672

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