Student march: Zuma to meet with universities’ management and student leaders
JOBURG – The president to meet with student leaders and university management as the protest against fee increment gains momentum.
As the fees-must-fall campaign spreads to all South African government universities, the President is scheduled to meet with the management and leadership of universities and students at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on 23 October.
According to the statement on the presidency website the President will hold the consultative meetings with the stakeholders with a view of finding a solution to the stalemate.
“The President reiterates that government fully understands the pressure and difficulties that students coming from poor households and the working class face with regards to high university fees,” the statement reads.
Bongani Majola from the presidency said it was up to universities to ensure that they send their representatives for the meeting.
“I am sure by now they had all received the logistics about the meeting,” he said.
He explained that all the South African universities were informed to send their representatives to the meeting which seeks to find an amicable solution to the problem.
The campaign escalated on 22 October when Sasco called all the universities in the country to join the protest in a national shut down against fee increment.
Meanwhile, the University of Johannesburg’s students joined other students in the protest.
The UJ spokesperson Herman Esterhuizen clarified that activities with the university were continuing as usual. “The students are marching to Luthuli House but in the university activities are continuing as usual,” he concluded.
The fees –must-fall protest started at the Witwatersrand University on 14 October when students started to protest against the 10.5 per cent proposed fee increment for 2016.
The protest had since escalated to other institutions nationwide.
Details: Presidency 082 339 1993 or bonganim@presidency.gov.za; University of Johannesburg 011 559 6653.
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