By Norm Dixon
More than 300 students were arrested after staging a sit-in at the University of Western Cape (UWC) on February 1. The students were protesting against increased university fees and hard-line regulations that exclude students who cannot afford to pay their fees debts.
South Africa's universities and technical colleges raised fees by up to 20% in late January and announced that students who fail to pay at least 40% of their debts would not be reregistered in 1998.
The South African Students' Congress (SASCO) said the institutions were harassing students because they were poor. The institutions blame the policy on the ANC government's failure to increase funding for education adequately.
The arrests followed a five-hour sit-in by students unable to pay their debts. They refused to vacate their residences when ordered to by the university administration. After students ignored the final notice to leave the campus, heavily armed police bundled them into armoured cars and police vans.
After being released in the early hours of February 2, the students marched to the UWC gates, where a vigil of several hundred students and staff continues. The administration has closed the UWC. On February 3, students protested outside the Belville Magistrates Court in Cape Town. The arrested students were released on bail.
UWC claims it is owed some US$10 million (R50 million) by 7000 students too poor to pay. Altogether, it is estimated that South Africa's 21 universities are owed more than US$100 million.
Not surprisingly, the National Party's Youth Action group supported the UWC administration's decision to bar indebted students. NPYA spokesperson Boertjie de Wet praised the UWC's "attempts to restore discipline".
The fees struggle is spreading across South Africa as students turn up to register for the 1998 academic year, only to find they are excluded. The ANC Youth League at the University of Pretoria said it will join the protests after UP increased its fees. A national protest was to take place on February 5.
The University of the North, Fort Hare University and the University of the Transkei are all turning students away. At Fort Hare, almost the entire Students Representative Council has been barred from the university.
Fort Hare rector Professor Mbulelo Mzamane said that management had held frequent talks with the SRC but these failed because the SRC tended "to advocate free university education, which was not government policy".
Fort Hare has raised fees by 15% and insists that students pay 50% of their fees up front during registration. SRC president Thembinkosi Bonakele has called on students to boycott registration. Fort Hare administration has warned that police are on stand-by to deal with mass action.
The University of Durban-Westville SRC spokesperson, Thami Ngwenya, predicted that 3000 of the university's 9600 students would be excluded when registration closed on February 6.