The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Students Command says its members were peacefully demanding free education when police fired rubber bullets at them outside the Higher Education Department in Pretoria Thursday.
EFFSC President Peter Phuti Keetse says students were shocked to find the department closed and guarded by the police.
He says their members marched to the Sol Plaatjie building to demand free education for the poor from the Ministry, as promised by President Jacob Zuma in December.
“We were assured that you are going to be registered for free. All your debt is going to be cleared and you are not going to have financial problems. But as a shock today we are told that we owe universities and we cannot register. We are told that we are poor, we are too poor to be at Wits. We are too poor to be TUT. We are too poor to be at UNISA to be at Tukkies. It’s only the children of white people and the children of the rich that must be there. So, today we are saying that must come to gentle stop comrades.”
