In October, thousands of South African college students protested high tuition rates on campuses and online, under the banner of #FeesMustFall.
Now, additional scores of South Africans have returned to the streets. This time, they are demanding that President Jacob Zuma be replaced as the country's leader. The demonstrators are marching in the capital city of Cape Town and using the hashtag #ZumaMustFall on social media.
The protests against President Zuma come after he laid off two South African finance ministers last week amid growing economic concerns in the country, BBC News explains.
#ZumaMustFallMarch We Are Not Done Not Until He Steps Down https://t.co/nA7cY1o7pA
— MdiLOw™✌ (@DelightSekhwela) December 16, 2015#ZumaMustFallMarch Let's expose him for who he really is, a man with no dignity, incapacity, short minded and popular at being notorious
— SKEBHE NAVIGARE™ (@skebhe171) December 16, 2015I'd like to think Tata Madiba was with us today on Nelson Mandela bridge, smiling down on us. #ZumaMustFallMarch pic.twitter.com/7Y5pxCFTv3
— Cllr Forsythe (@DAWard87) December 16, 2015Zuma is a member of the African National Congress (ANC), which has been in power in South Africa since 1994, when apartheid ended. The South African economy has struggled under ANC governance — the country's unemployment rate is a shocking 25% — and the ANC has faced accusations of corruption.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
Doubt That he will fall but he sure will get the message #ZumaMustFallMarch
— LeeJabs Beauty House (@jmayisela77) December 16, 2015One thing about the #ZumaMustFallMarch is that it has united #SouthAfrican citizens regardless of their racial indifference's
— Something Black (@WandafulG) December 16, 2015For the first time in history, all races come together and fight, not against each other but together...This is UNITY✊✊✊ #ZumaMustFallMarch
— Zenande Njongo (@Zenande_Njongo) December 16, 2015Though it's impossible to know what the outcome of the #ZumaMustFall protests will be, the #FeesMustFall movement earlier this year was successful — officials agreed to halt the proposed increase in public-university fees. And before the student protests, South Africans successfully used the hashtag #RhodesMustFall, along with protests, to demand the removal of a statue of Cecil Rhodes, a British colonialist, from the University of Cape Town campus.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT