Minister of Higher Education and Training Blade Nzimande says there is no reason for the protests currently taking place at Wits university.

Students are refusing to accept announcement on fees adjustments.

Monday Nzimande suggested that there be a fee increase of not more than 8% but universities and not the department would have to individually decide by how much.

He also announced that there would be no increase in university tuition fees for NSFAS beneficiaries.

Speaking on Morning Live he says: “There seems to be groups who told themselves that irrespective of what we announce, they will go out into the streets. There are other political agendas at play here.”

He says it is strange that students are protesting when enough has been done to ensure that the needs of poor students are met.

Nzimande says while he acknowledges the rights of students to protest, a holistic approach is needed.

“We cannot say free education for all when there is no plan on where the money will come from. It will not help anyone when we collapse our universities,” he says.

Wits SRC’s Secretary-General, Fasiha Hassan says, “We’ve just had a mass meeting with students where students themselves have now mandated us to say that we need  to continue the fight, we need to continue in ensuring that free and quality education is delivered. There’s a variety of ways in which we are going to do it, but we are also saying that we need to have unity within the student movement.”