Students take fees campaign to Union Buildings, world pledges solidarity
Thousands of students from various parts of Gauteng have begun making their way to the seat of government in Pretoria.
Around 10 000 of them are expected to converge on the lawns of the Union Buildings as President Jacob Zuma meets with university Vice Chancellors and students leaders over the Fees Must Fall campaign.
They are demanding a 0% fee increase next year and free and quality education in the future.
ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe says they're hopeful that today's meeting between Zuma and the students will have positive results.
Briefing the media in Johannesburg last night, Mantashe said the memorandum that thousands of students brought to Luthuli House yesterday has been handed over to government.
"Transformation is not an easy destination, it's a long journey with problems. We must be able and prepared to travel it together and that journey of transformation means engaging talks all the time.
Mantashe also says there must be a balance between complying and being humiliated.
Yesterday, he was told to sit down by student leaders when he tried to address them after they marched to the ANC headquarters.
They told Mantashe to humble himself as they had called for him and not the other way round.
As the students march to the Union Buildings today, South Africans abroad as well as other students from across the world have pledged their support for the Fees Must Fall campaign.
Many expats have taken to social media to post pictures of themselves holding up messages of support.
Solidarity protests are planned for London later this morning with a mark to Trafalgar Square and a picket outside South Africa House.
Students in Japan have also expressed their support for the campaign.
The South African Communist Party in KwaZulu-Natal has weighed in on the matter, defending its leader and Higher Education Minister, Blade Nzimande.
Speaking during a media briefing in Durban yesterday, the SACP’s Bheki Mngadi said calls for Nzimande to be recalled are simply absurd.
"A minister on his or her own cannot change the rules of the country because they operate within a collective. So it doesn't make sense to call for one person to resign. The best you can do is to call for the whole structure to step down, so why target comrade Blade," he said.
(Photo Supplied)