South African President Jacob Zuma scraps university fee hikes amid student protests

South African President Jacob Zuma has announced Friday that planned fee hikes for 2016 will not hold after days of student protests over the issue near the Union Buildings in the capital, Pretoria.

"We agreed that there will be a zero increase of university fees in 2016," Zuma said. ''Government understands the difficulty faced by students from poor households, and urges all affected to allow the process to unfold to find long-term solutions in order to ensure access to education."

Initially, fees were to go up by 10%, but the government lowered the increase to 6% before freezing the hikes for next year.