The police today clashed with half-n*ked university students protesting in South Africa over high cost of university education.
Some protesters at South Africa’s Wits
University went half-n*ked exposing their breasts in protest to high
tuition fees on Tuesday. The students clashed violently with police over
the incident with many wounded.
In a report by Reuters, police fired
stun grenades, rubber bullets and teargas at hundreds of students who
marched through the university’s campus in Johannesburg, performing the
“toyi-toyi” protest dance made popular during the struggle against
oppressive white rule.
At least two people were arrested
earlier when police moved in to enforce a court order on public
gathering at Wits, whose full name is University of the Witwatersrand.
Demonstrations over the cost of
university education, which is prohibitive for many black students, have
highlighted frustration at enduring inequalities in Africa’s most
industrialized country more than two decades after the end of apartheid.
“I
am not sure free education is feasible. And I am worried about attacks
on other students. It’s inflicting fear in other students. It’s not
right,” said one final year law student, who was not taking part in the protest but did not want to give his name.
The square in front of the main hall on
campus was strewn with spent shotgun shells and rocks after several
skirmishes between police and protesters.
A police woman in riot gear hobbling
from the scene with assistance from her colleagues told Reuters she had
been hit in the leg with a stone thrown by protesters.
This is not the first time the students
have protested over the cost of university education. Just last year,
the students clashed with university authorities forcing the government
to freeze fee increases and set up a commission to look into the
education funding system.
The unrest boiled over again, closing
some classes and universities, when the commission said on Sept. 19 that
fees would continue to rise, albeit with an 8 percent cap in 2017.
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