Police have arrested 10 protesting students for blocking an entrance at Witwatersrand University, spokeswoman Shirona Patel said on Tuesday.
A group of about 50 students had gathered at Braamfontein campus early in the morning. They allegedly prevented vehicles from entering or leaving the university, she said.
“They were asked to disperse, most of them did, however, 10 of them refused to move and were arrested for blocking entrances. Security has been stationed at all points. All gates are open now. Academic programme is scheduled to continue as usual,” said Patel.
Security has been tightened after students held a meeting on Monday night and vowed to shut down academic activities against 2017 tuition fee hike.
Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande on Monday announced that it was up to universities to determine their own increase, but that the increments would be capped at eight percent.
All NSFAS (National Student Financial Aid Scheme) qualifying students as well as the so-called ‘missing middle’ – that is students whose families earn above the NSFAS threshold but who are unable to support their children to access to higher education, would bear no fee increase in 2017.
He said the government will pay for the fee increase on their behalf, which has been estimated at R2.5 billion.
The contentions issue of higher education funding saw the ‘#FeesMustFall’ campaign swept across campuses a year ago when thousands of students marched to the Union Buildings
in Pretoria and even stormed Parliament in Cape Town, which eventually prompted President Jacob Zuma to announce there would be no fee increase for the 2016 academic year.
The no-fee-increase decision meant that government and institutions had to cover shortfalls running into hundreds of millions of rand.
This year many of the country’s institutions of higher learning said they relied on tuition fees to sustain themselves and pointed out that student debt had risen sharply since the advent of the ‘#FeesMustFall’ campaign.
The dire situation was dimmed further by national Treasury telling the judicial commission of inquiry into higher education fees that there was no money to wholly fund higher education.
The ongoing inquiry was established by Zuma two months ago to probe free higher education funding, which culminated into the hikes announced by Ndzimande on Monday.
However, students have remained unshaken, demanding that there should be no fee hikes until government implemented free higher education.
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