#Asinamali and “No free education, no elections!” are some of the slogans that join a long line of #FeesMustFall slogans by Wits University students as they picked up, over the past few weeks, where they left off last year.

After last year’s historic countrywide protests which led to president Jacob Zuma announcing a 0% fee increase for this year, students vowed that the fight was not over and it seems, they weren’t joking.

So what has been the story so far, here is a summary of what we know so far:

Registration hitches at Wits, Potchefstroom and Pretoria?

Student’s from across the country experienced a great deal of inconvenience when registrations were disrupted due to protests. Members of the FeesMustFall campaign and SRC prevented students from registering until all their demands were met by university administration.

In Johannesburg

Wits University Chancellor Adam Habib went under fire for his decision to bring private security, which he defends in an open letter saying that the university hired the security for preventative measures and to protect both registering students and university staff who were apparently being threatened by protestors.

A heavy security presence has also been felt at the University of Johannesburg, were students were not able to register at the university and were told to register online.

At both universities there have been claims of assault and sexual harassment but none have been officially reported and there is apparently not enough proof to substantiate the claims. It was also reported that

UJ’s Vice Chancellor Ihron Rensburg said that universities had been spending up to R2 million a month on private security ever since the beginning of protests last year October. He said the situation had become unsustainable as the money could be better used.

In Pretoria

UNISA was forced to close it’s doors after protests turned violent. Many students were turned back from registering by cleaners, security guards and student leaders who were protesting over outsourcing.

In the North West

With only 1 476 North West University students receiving funding from NSFAS out of the 5 058 who had applied, students continued protesting for free education at the Mafikeng campus which resulted in management turning back students and forcing them to register online. Online registrations then caused conflict among students. Student leaders were unimpressed and called those who registered online “sellouts”. The university’s SRC president Benz Mabengwane was quoted as saying “Those who register online must also attend classes online.”

Registration is said to continue until Friday, January 29th.

NSFAS

Minister of the Department of Higher Education and Training, Blade Nzimande recently joined Twitter and was quick to join in on a conversation about the state of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS)

Nomalanga Mkhize (@NomalangaSA) tweeted “The NSFAS story is a disaster. The system is the problem. As fees rise, each NSFAS generations owes far more than past students.”

This NSFAS story is a disaster. The system is the problem. As fees rise, each nsfas generation owes far more than past students

— Nomalanga Mkhize (@NomalangaSA) January 24, 2016

This Nsfas story shows how detached @DrBladeNzimande and all that generation are from reality of the young today.

— Nomalanga Mkhize (@NomalangaSA) January 24, 2016

RT if you want to tell @DrBladeNzimande to Abolish Nsfas and start a universal graduate levy that even Neil and Caitlin must pay into

— Nomalanga Mkhize (@NomalangaSA) January 24, 2016

This comes in light of NFSAS recently announcing that the budget has been increased to R10 billion. The scheme said it had already paid universities R1.8 billion to cover registrations for students who qualified for NSFAS qualifying students and that the historical debt of students who were studying between 2013, 2014 and 2015 has been settled.

Feature image by Kyle Kheswa.

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