{"id":102050,"date":"2015-10-23T14:43:03","date_gmt":"2015-10-23T12:43:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=102050"},"modified":"2015-10-23T14:43:03","modified_gmt":"2015-10-23T12:43:03","slug":"political-parties-hijack-feesmustfall-protest-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/102050\/political-parties-hijack-feesmustfall-protest-reports\/","title":{"rendered":"Political parties hijack #FeesMustFall protest: reports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Reports from the ground of the students&#8217; #FeesMustFall protest at the Union Buildings in Pretoria claim that political parties &#8211; notably the\u00a0ANC Youth League and South African Student&#8217;s Congress (SASCO) and the EFF &#8211; have co-opted the movement and are causing chaos.<\/p>\n<p>A largely peaceful protest by students marching against high fees for tertiary education turned violent after &#8220;students&#8221; wearing ANC and SASCO t-shirts started breaking fences and burning portable toilets. EFF members were also implicated in the actions.<\/p>\n<p>According to Talk Radio 702 host, Redi Thlabi, and many other protesters on the ground at the union buildings, the alleged &#8220;third force&#8221; were not part of the student protest, and were met with boos and shouts for peace by the larger crowd.<\/p>\n<p><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Redi-tweet-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-102058\" src=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Redi-tweet-1.png\" alt=\"Redi tweet 1\" width=\"600\" height=\"316\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Redi-tweet-1.png 600w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Redi-tweet-1-300x158.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Redi-tweet-4.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-102052\" src=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Redi-tweet-4.png\" alt=\"Redi tweet 4\" width=\"604\" height=\"281\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Redi-tweet-4.png 604w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Redi-tweet-4-300x140.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 604px) 100vw, 604px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Redi-tweet-2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-102056\" src=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Redi-tweet-2.png\" alt=\"Redi tweet 2\" width=\"596\" height=\"376\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Redi-tweet-2.png 596w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Redi-tweet-2-300x189.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 596px) 100vw, 596px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The host stressed that the large majority of the students, including those wearing DA, ANC and EFF attire, were peaceful.<\/p>\n<p><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Redi-tweet-3.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-102054\" src=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Redi-tweet-3.png\" alt=\"Redi tweet 3\" width=\"600\" height=\"276\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Redi-tweet-3.png 600w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Redi-tweet-3-300x138.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/idNc70eiKKE\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Many commentors have raised questions about the timing of the sudden violence, after a week of peaceful protest from the students&#8217; side.<\/p>\n<p>There are allegations that the ANC itself had planted disruptors to break the legitimacy of the protest &#8211; while others point to the EFF as being the culprits, having a history of distruption.<\/p>\n<p><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/ANC-deploye.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-102060\" src=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/ANC-deploye.png\" alt=\"ANC deploye\" width=\"600\" height=\"312\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/ANC-deploye.png 600w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/ANC-deploye-300x156.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, President Jacob Zuma, who was scheduled to meet with the students at noon, was meeting with ministers and student representatives over the issues raised by the #FeesMustFall movement.<\/p>\n<p>Some protesters expressed confusion as to who the student representatives were, however, as leaders on the ground had boycotted the meeting.<\/p>\n<p>At the time of writing, Police Minister Nathi Nhleko told eNCA reporter Nicklaus Bauer that the plan was still for the president to address the students\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0however this would only happen once the situation had settled.<\/p>\n<p>Students have taken to social media to &#8220;name and shame&#8221; the groups responsible, while also distancing themselves from the violent disruptions.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More on universities<\/h3>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/general\/102010\/what-you-need-to-know-about-university-fees-in-south-africa\/\">What you need to know about university fees in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"How much money students owe South Africa\u2019s universities\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/general\/101826\/how-much-money-students-owe-south-africas-universities\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">How much money students owe South Africa\u2019s universities<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/general\/101734\/this-is-how-much-money-south-africas-top-universities-make\/\" target=\"_blank\">This is how much money South Africa\u2019s top universities make<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/general\/101412\/here-are-south-africas-26-universities\/\">Here are South Africa\u2019s 26 universities<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reports from the ground of the students&#8217; #FeesMustFall protest say that political parties have co-opted the movement and are causing chaos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":101744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[25,10682],"class_list":["post-102050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-active","tag-feesmustfall"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102050"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102062,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102050\/revisions\/102062"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}