South African university students protest against dramatic tuition increases, which have come to an all-time peak since last October. The beginning of protests started over a year ago with quiet and respectful attitudes, similar to the 2009 California tuition student protests. However, in the past month, protests have grown in quantity of students and violence (including both students and police). In Johannesburg, rubber bullets, tear gas, and stun grenades are generously used to oppress South African students’ very notorious right of freedom of speech. Acts, like throwing rocks and screaming profanities in public in response to the violent acts of policemen, are not uncommonly seen on campus. Students are protesting not only the drastic increases in tuition, but claiming the universities and colleges, such as Witts (University of Witwatersrand), University of Cape Town, and University of Pretoria, and policemen are actively “anti-poor” and “anti-black.”

Similar to Americas #BlackLivesMatter, South Africa has created a huge and growing #FeesMustFall with 65,000 tags on Instagram, 100,000 on Twitter (not including retweets), plus many real life followers empowering the movement. The movement has proven so powerful that Witts University, home of 28,000 students yearly, was shut down for a week to subside the violence.

The Minister of Higher Education, Dr. Blade Nzimande, and President of Higher Education have been working to satisfy both the protestors and universities, unsuccessfully. The anger his press conference started began saying such as “for a Blade, he isn’t that sharp.” Protests originated peacefully and silently in university courtyards and local parks, but have escalated dramatically.  Following Nzimande’s statement releasing what the Higher Education counsel decided on tuition, protesting increased in size and violence. Video footage of policemen and students throwing rocks at each other proves the protests have taken it too far, but do they have a reason?

The press conference concluded universities and TVET colleges will choose their own tuition and tuition inclines yearly. Some universities have chosen to use this as an opportunity to open their doors in hope of more students, meaning they will not need a raised tuition. Other universities have chosen this as an opportunity to close their doors, raise the tuition, and wait for the protestors to go elsewhere.

Even more unsettling than the violent protests is the fact that the Minister of South African Higher Education openly stated the raw truth that donated money from both South African citizens and people around the world is not being used properly. Up to “400,000 students tuition worth ” and “405,000 TVET college students tuition worth” have been donated, yet the Higher Education board is not doing anything towards its intended purpose. Ethical? Not in the least.