South African police
have fired stun grenades and arrested 31 students in Johannesburg, as a wave of
protests hit universities across the country.
Students are demanding
free education and denounced government plans to raise tuition fees by up to 8%
in 2017.
Fees had been frozen
last year after the biggest student protests since the end of apartheid in
1994.
The demonstrators say
price increases discriminate against black students with low family incomes.
The prestigious
University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg has been a focal point of protests.
It said about 200
students in "roving groups are moving from campus to campus disrupting
classes".
The University of
Bloemfontein and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in the coastal city
of Port Elizabeth said they had closed campuses because of the protests.
The University of Cape
Town announced the suspension of classes as students sang revolutionary songs
barricaded entrances with litter bins.
University of
Witwatersrand Students' Representative Council leader Nompendulo Mkatshwa
police fired stun grenades at students who had gathered near the university to
protest against the proposed fee increase.
"Students are not
happy with what the Department of Higher Education and Training said, so they
are fighting for equal education," Ms Mkatshwa is quoted by Reuters news
agency as saying.
Police spokesman Lungelo
Dlamini said the arrested students "were blocking the entrance of the
university in contravention of the court order" and were being held at a
nearby station, Reuters reports.
Last year, South
Africa's President Jacob Zuma froze student fees for 2016 following the worst
student protests to hit South Africa since minority rule ended more than 20
years ago.
The freeze has now been
lifted, with Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande announcing on Monday that
universities will be allowed to increase fees by a maximum of 8%.
Critics say this is
higher than the 6% inflation rate, and will make university education
unaffordable for many students.
However, universities
favour an increase, saying they were facing a financial crisis which was
damaging their academic programmes.
Source: bbc.com
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