CAPE TOWN, (Reuters) – South African riot police fired stun grenades yesterday at hundreds of protesting students who stormed the parliament precinct in Cape Town to try to disrupt the reading of Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene’s interim budget.
As chaos erupted around the building, Nene, standing calmly at the podium inside the chamber, read his speech, which gave a gloomy outlook for Africa’s most advanced economy. The speech was delayed by 45 minutes as MPs from the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party raised questions of order, arguing the budget should be delayed because of student protests over planned increases in 2016 tuition fees. Scuffles broke out as parliamentary security guards were called in to forcibly remove the EFF members. At that point, hundreds of students demanding the government scrap the planned tuition hike stormed the parliament compound.
“We were pushed back by police with force. The stun grenade was shot right next to my ear. I still have the buzzing in my ear,” said Motheo Lengoasa, a student at University of Cape Town, as others chanted and sang songs demanding lower fees.
Earlier she had lain prostate on the ground in front of the entrance to the National Assembly where Nene was speaking.
“This looks like 1976 all over again,” she said, referring to the Soweto uprising where police killed at least 69 students who were protesting plans to teach them in Afrikaans.
When higher education minister Blade Nzimande tried to address the students, they waved placards saying, “Fees must fall, education for all” and “Blade must go.”
President Jacob Zuma, who wore a stony expression through Nene’s speech, has not commented on the protests, some of them violent, that have disrupted at least 14 of South Africa’s universities in the past week.
