Student Spring - #Feesmustfall 2015

It was an uprising that shook Africa and made headlines around the world. It blew wide open the debate over who pays for education. Scores of universities across South Africa shut their doors amid violence and protest. Police fought with demonstrators outside Parliament in Cape Town in scenes reminiscent of the bad old days of apartheid. The howl from the students: can’t pay, won’t pay. The authorities may have backed down on tuition fee increases but it appears the debate and the protests have only just begun.

#Feesmustfall 2015

Hundreds of students at the University of the Witwatersrand gather at the Great Hall steps, at 5PM on October 22, to demand a 0% fee increase – they got it Whatever way you look at it, higher education in South Africa is expensive. A Bachelor of Science first-year student at the University of Cape Town paid between $3,700 and $4,700 in fees this year. Science students at the University of the Witwatersrand paid between $3,000 and $4,200, while Stellenbosch University students paid between $2,750 and $3,000 and the University of Johannesburg students paid between $2,200 and $3,700.

#Feesmustfall 2015 - Campus Crusades

On top of this, parents pay for accommodation, books and food. The approximate total cost for living in a self-catering single-room residence at the University of Cape Town is $3,600 per year. “I use about R120,000 ($8,700) on my daughter per year to study and live Higher education is a question of economics as much as learning. With students taking to the streets demonstrating for free education, the question is who should pay? in Cape Town. Things are expensive and there is just not enough money. My other daughter is starting university next year and I worry about how I will pay for them both,” says single mother, Noxolo Dwaba, from Johannesburg. This is why students and parents want cheaper education in a country where you pay income tax of up to 41%. It led to mass protests at universities around the country.

#Feesmustfall 2015 - Campus Crusades

At the passionate student demonstrations was a veteran campaigner who spent more than a third of his life behind bars for his beliefs. Ahmed Kathrada, who went to prison with Nelson Mandela, says high university fees will force the poor to drop out. “While one is well aware that the economy is already under pressure, we believe that government can cut wasteful expenditure and reprioritize education, which itself is essential to addressing inequality in South Africa in the long term,” he says.

#Feesmustfall 2015 - Campus Crusades

It all began when the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) proposed a 10.5% hike in fees for 2016. The students retaliated, saying most of South Africa’s youth can’t afford tertiary education and this problem would only get worse. Soon, students at the University of Cape Town (UCT), University of Stellenbosch, University of Johannesburg (UJ), University of Pretoria and the University of KwaZulu-Natal joined Wits in protest. It became a national movement. Students around the world want the answer to who will foot the bill – clearly they don’t want to.

#Feesmustfall - Conflict at Union Buildings

Over 15,000 students marched to the Union Buildings in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, in a plight to be heard and addressed by President Jacob Zuma. After talking to the universities, the Minister of Higher Education, Blade Nzimande, reduced the increase to 6%; the students rejected it. Police struggled to control demonstrators and for older South Africans, these were scenes reminiscent of the 1976 student uprising during apartheid

#Feesmustfall 2015 - Conflict at the Union Buildings

It had been a sweaty and bad tempered few hours to the crash of stun grenades and taunts of students toward police lines. This 50-strong group – nobody knew who they were – ran riot, burning everything from toilets to tyres.

#Feesmustfall 2015 - Conflict at the Union Buildings

It had been a sweaty and bad tempered few hours to the crash of stun grenades and taunts of students toward police lines. This 50-strong group – nobody knew who they were – ran riot, burning everything from toilets to tyres.

#Feesmustfall 2015 - Conflict at the Union Buildings

13h45, October 23: The moment all hell broke loose on the grounds of the Union Buildings, in Pretoria. Students hurl a volley of stones, bottles and even a wrench to break the police barrier after hours of pushing, shoving and screaming. I was in a fortunate position to get this shot. There was a small gap under the fence, just wide enough to stick my camera through. I lay with my face in the dirt and strained through the viewfinder. It could have turned very nasty. Three students siphoned off the fuel from an abandoned generator to make petrol bombs. They were foiled only by police shooting tear gas, which sent thousands running into the streets of Pretoria with their eyes streaming.

#Feesmustfall 2015 - Conflict at the Union Buildings

#Feesmustfall 2015 - Conflict at the Union Buildings

Most of the 8,000 students on the lawns were peaceful. In the hours after the tear gas flew, the authorities agreed to the 0% increase.