“We would like there to be no violence and we have been telling comrades to be peaceful,” #FeesMustFall leader Thobani Zikalala, said speaking at a press conference in Durban to announce details of a march on Tuesday from Durban’s Curries Fountain to the city’s harbour.

“We are trying to change the narrative that we are young thugs and hooligans. We believe that when students respond violently during these demonstrations, they are responding to hard-handed tactics from the police.”

The third year University of KwaZulu-Natal student said: “There have been elements in the movement that have been very violent and we have reeled them in. It is difficult to do when we are met with violence and when we have no direct communication with university authorities, which instead send in private security and police.”

He said the call for no fees was “a noble cause” and could not be tainted by violence.

He said that students were angry that government had treated the movement as “a political movement and a political game”.

He said the movement was thankful to those who could afford tertiary education and had still supported the call for free education.

Another of the student leaders, Michael van Niekerk, said that he believed the biggest reason for the clashes was “the complete disconnect from university management with students”.

He said that interdicts obtained by management had given police a licence to shoot and arrest students on campus and had promoted violence.

“The police are easily angered and triggered and the students are on a knife-edge,” said van Niekerk.

“The violence is almost caused by the disconnect.”

While it was not immediately clear why the students were marching on the harbour, Van Niekerk said: “We need to redefine what violence is to include economic violence, not just the violence of throwing stones.”

He accused white South Africans of being disconnected from the students’ struggle.

“They see this and all they see is black violence from badly presented media,” he said.

According to the organisers of the march there are more than 40 University of KwaZulu-Natal students with pending court cases or languishing in jail while there are as many as 10 Durban University of Technology students who have been arrested – two of whom are still in jail.

They said fee increases prevented black students from attaining an education and the government’s National Financial Aid Scheme simply further indebted the same poor black students.

Zikalala said the march would begin at 9am.

Several campuses around the country have experienced violence and unrest since higher education minister Blade Nzimande’s announcement on September 19, that universities should decide on their own fee increases for the 2017 academic year.

Nzimande placed a cap of eight per cent on the increases and said they should be transparent and inflation-linked.

ANA