S/Africa campuses face funding shortage after tuition fee freeze

South Africa’s government is grappling with a 2.3 billion rand ($165 million) shortfall at university campuses after President Jacob Zuma gave in to protesting students’ demands and ruled out tuition fee increases next year, officials said on Thursday.
Classes and examinations have resumed after three weeks of disruption, but the demonstrations over the cost of university education – prohibitive for many blacks – highlighted frustration with the inequalities that persist two decades after the end of white-minority rule.
Some university students have demanded free higher education, saying Zuma’s action to freeze fee increases for next year did not go far enough, and their leaders have warned that protests could flare up again in the future.