As
protests against rising university fees rocked campuses around the country,
South African riot police used tear gas and stun grenades to diffuse protesting
students outside parliament in Cape Town.
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| The students were attempting to disrupt the reading of finance minister Nhlanhla Nene's interim budget. |
Hundreds of students forced their way through gates of the parliament complex and gathered at the entrance of the national assembly building, clashing with police who tried to force them back.
Universities in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria and other cities have halted lectures during several days of protests against fee increases that many say will force poor black students further out of the education system.
Protesters kicked police shields and threw bottles during running clashes outside parliament, with police repeatedly using stun grenades to try to control the angry crowds.
They sang popular protest songs and anti-apartheid slogans, and demanded to speak to education minister Blade Nzimande by chanting "we want Blade, we want Blade".
The students were attempting to disrupt the reading of finance minister Nhlanhla Nene's interim budget.
As clashes broke out, Mr Nene, standing calmly at the podium inside the chamber, continued to read his speech, in which he outlined the 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 multiple questions of order, arguing the budget should be delayed because of the spate of student protests over the tuition fee hike.
Scuffles broke out as parliamentary security guards were eventually called in to remove the EFF members by force.
Many of South Africa's universities have been hit by protests, some of them violent, in the last week by students demanding that a hike in tuition fees by as much as 11 per cent be scrapped.
University bosses said the increases were needed to maintain standards, and called on the government to find the extra funding.
Protests have also attempted to target the limited racial transformation of education since the end of racist white-minority rule, which was eventually overthrown with Nelson Mandela's election in 1994.
Students at Stellenbosch University outside Cape Town have been lobbying for more classes to be taught in English rather than Afrikaans, the language of the former apartheid government.
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