South African riot police fired stun grenades and tear gas at student protesters Wednesday outside Parliament building in Cape Town.

Hundreds of students from the University of Cape Town (UCT), the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) and the Western Cape marched to the gate of the Parliament building Wednesday afternoon, demanding that Higher Education Blade Nzimande withdraw the higher tuition fee proposal, according to Eye Witness News.

"Why not strike? South Africa is a place where there is not education for everyone. The gap between the wealthy and the poor is too vast. How are we going to move forward without an education?" one student protester said, according to BD Live.

"We want all fees to be decreased. What we are doing will change the minds of government who is not concerned about us," Siphokazi Makaula from CPUT said.

Watch the footage of the protest below.

Riot police used stun grenades and tear gas to disperse the crowd from the gate of Parliament, where Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene was delivering his mid term budget speech.

Nene's budget speech was delayed by 40 minutes as the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) MPs raised the demands of students in the Parliament, according to SABC. The protesting MPs were later forcefully evicted from the house by Parliamentary guards.

The South African government proposed a nearly 12 percent hike in tuition fees for the next academic year last week. Students across the country under the "Fees Must Fall" (FMF) campaign have been protesting against the government's proposal.

The hashtag #FeesMustFall has taken Twitter by storm. Read some of the tweets below.

@ 2024 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.