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South African students protest education fee hike

#FeesMustFall student movement in South Africa effectively prevented a 10-15 percent rise in education fees.

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The culmination of the week-long protests by students at tertiary institutions around the country took place in South Africa's capital, Pretoria, on Friday. Many anticipated this to be a turning point in the country's 21-year-old democracy. [Aliki Saragas/Al Jazeera]
By Aliki Saragas
Published On 26 Oct 2015

Pretoria, South Africa – In just over a week, a handful of students managed to mobilise the country into a nationwide movement which became known as #FeesMustFall. The movement protests the 10-15 percent school fee increases for the 2016 academic year and the threat it presents of financial exclusion. The organisers plan to continue the struggle through the #FreeEducationForAll twitter campaign.

Thousands of students from most provinces in South Africa took to the streets, organising sit-ins and marching in the rain and scorching sun.

They see the fee increase as a noose that condemns them to a lifetime of debt. Many students find themselves in a precarious position of not being poor enough to qualify for National Student Financial Aid schemes, and not being wealthy enough to afford the rise in university fees. 

On Wednesday, October 21, students from all around the Western Cape gathered outside the South African Parliament in anticipation of Minister of Higher Education Blade Nzimande’s speech after his meeting with multiple university councils.

Related: S Africa halts university fee hikes after mass protests

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More than 10,000 people gathered on the lawn outside the Union Buildings awaiting the address by President Jacob Zuma on the outcome of his meeting with student leaders and the university councils that morning. [Aliki Saragas/Al Jazeera]
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This gathering was the single largest student protest since the 1976 Soweto uprising in which the apartheid government opened fire on school children fighting against the introduction of the oppressor's language, Afrikaans, as the medium of instruction at schools. [Aliki Saragas/Al Jazeera]
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In front of the crowd, on the other side of a fence, a podium for speakers was erected and guarded by heavily armed police. [Aliki Saragas/Al Jazeera]
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Thousands more peaceful protesters descended on Pretoria in buses from Johannesburg and surrounding areas waiting for the president's address. After hours of waiting in the sun, a handful of frustrated students began throwing rocks and water bottles at the police. [Aliki Saragas/Al Jazeera]
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In response to items thrown at police, other students rushed in between those throwing rocks and the police, holding their hands in the air and shouting: 'Nonviolence! Nonviolence!'. [Aliki Saragas/Al Jazeera]
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President Zuma did not appear. This only infuriated the protesters more, and a minority responded by tearing up the fence between themselves and the police and burning portable toilets. [Aliki Saragas/Al Jazeera]
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After tearing down the fence, a few protesters attempted to break through the police barricade in order to occupy the Union Buildings by throwing bricks at police. [Aliki Saragas/Al Jazeera]
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The majority of the students remained peaceful while waiting for the president to speak. [Aliki Saragas/Al Jazeera]
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The police responded to the rock-throwers using stun grenades that were released every few minutes, and a water cannon to put out fires. [Aliki Saragas/Al Jazeera]
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When a handful of students managed to break through the police barricade and barbed wire and started towards the Union Buildings, police retaliated with tear gas. [Aliki Saragas/Al Jazeera]
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The tear gas affected all of the students on the ground, who then moved off the lawn and onto the street opposite the Union Buildings. It was at this point that President Zuma decided to address the nation via a live broadcast on television and radio, and not speak to the students directly. [Aliki Saragas/Al Jazeera]
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While the rest of the nation heard that a decision had been made not to increase fees, the students directly affected had no idea that they had won. [Aliki Saragas/Al Jazeera]
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The students criticised the government's leadership for not acknowledging their presence as they stood waiting just beyond the door of the Union Buildings, under the outstretched arms of Nelson Mandela's statue. [Aliki Saragas/Al Jazeera]
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Other South African cities, including Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Grahamstown and Durban, supported the protest in Pretoria - as did international solidarity rallies outside of the South African High Commission in Trafalgar Square in London. [Aliki Saragas/Al Jazeera]