South African president to meet student protesters

JOHANNESBURG — Thousands of South African university students demonstrated outside the headquarters of the country’s ruling African National Congress party and a courthouse on Thursday, pressing a nationwide campaign against tuition increases that they say should be scrapped.

A raucous crowd of thousands listened to speakers and chanted slogans outside the ANC’s offices in downtown Johannesburg before student leaders handed over a list of demands, including a freeze on tuition increases, to ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe.

Earlier, security guards forcibly removed a group of opposition lawmakers from the Parliament floor after the lawmakers, who are sympathetic to the students, disrupted debate by chanting: “Fees must fall!”

Blade Nzimande, the higher education minister, this week proposed a 6 percent limit on tuition fee increases next year, but student leaders rejected the proposal and said they would continue their protests, South African media reported.

Students marched peacefully to the provincial legislature in Pietermaritzburg, and another group blocked the entrance to the building of the higher education department in Pretoria, according to South African media reports.