SA High Commissioner in London sits on floor with protesters to sign #FeesMustFall memorandum
Fees Must Fall protesters in London managed to get the SA High Commissioner to sit on the floor and sign their memorandum.
South African High Commissioner to London, Obed Mlaba, sat on the floor with protesters at today’s #FeesMustFall protest in front of South Africa House in Trafalgar Square.
The protest was organised in solidarity with the ongoing protests in South Africa which began earlier this month as a response to a proposed increase in university tuition fees.
The High Commissioner received and signed the #FeesMustFall memorandum as the crowd of approximately 500 protesters cheered.
In London, protesters force SA High Commissioner Obed Mlaba to sit down. Pic- @JaredSacks1 pic.twitter.com/ixvuUIbavI — Lester Kiewit (@lesterkk) October 23, 2015
SA High Commissioner Obed Mlaba made to sit on the floor by the #FeesMustFall campaigners here in London. pic.twitter.com/Ucg0erTrFQ
— Leaderless S.A. (@Wotzo) October 23, 2015
The police were applauded for their politeness as they guided protesters off the street and on to the pavement. However, two protesters who climbed the walls of the South African High Commission to sit in the windows were grabbed by the police when they jumped back down toward the end of the protest.
The crowd panicked as the police pushed through to try catch one of the protesters who attempted to run away.
Protestor trying to scale SA House at #FeesMustFall protest #YouAreGoingToFall pic.twitter.com/fcMZ8C8fZW — Katy Scott (@Katy_Kates) October 23, 2015
Scuffle just broke out. Don’t know why. Police just ran after a man. Pic from back of cam. #FeesMusFall in London pic.twitter.com/OotRyV4x7h
— Nielen de Klerk (@nielendk) October 23, 2015
Protesters trying to protect 1 of the men while police surround him.other man was apparently caught.#FeesMustFall pic.twitter.com/6SICpLWrDS — Nielen de Klerk (@nielendk) October 23, 2015
The protest was peaceful, lead by students from SOAS, University of London and Rhodes Must Fall Oxford.
Athinangamso Nkopo, a South African Oxford University student studying an MSC in African Studies addressed the crowd saying, “This movement is about students who have transcended political ideology”.
“It is about transforming the university space to one that the poor child in South Africa can be welcome in,” she said.
A University of Cape Town alumni student, Margot Davies attended the protest in solidarity with her friends back in South Africa. “We applaud your bravery and your cause, carrying on the tradition of 1976,” she told TheSouthAfrican.
Similarly, Diba Masooa (pictured below on the right) an alumni from the University of Witwatersrand encouraged South African students to keep in the spirit of 1976.
“The government should look where they are overspending, cut down on those budgets, and direct it toward education,” she told TheSouthAfrican. “This would address the skills shortage and unemployment in South Africa.”
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