Widespread student protests across the country showed signs of dying down on Saturday as students in Wits University in Johannesburg agreed to return to class.

Most students at Wits University voted to end protests through cellphone SMS, university management confirmed.

All academic activities at the university had been suspended for about one week due to the protest against fee increases.

Other institutions of higher learning were also hit by student protests, which erupted last week after Minister of Higher Education and Training, Blade Nzimande announced that universities can raise fees for 2017, provided that it does not exceed eight percent.

The University of Cape Town has warned that if class is not resumed next Monday, the campus would be closed for the whole academic year.

Also on Saturday, the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) congratulated students of Wits University on their decision to go back to class.

"We congratulate them because in our view they have listened to the ANCYL President (Collen Maine) who has been spreading the call that the youth need to study, thus going back to class was more than necessary," ANCYL national spokesperson Mlondi Mkhize said.

The ANCYL calls for calm and for all other student bodies to learn and emulate the students of Wits for going back to school, he said.

In a related development on Saturday, the opposition Democratic Alliance urged the ANC-led government to address the "unprecedented crisis" in higher education.

The crisis, if left unaddressed, will fracture the future of all students as well as the prospects of South Africa as a whole, DA leader Mmusi Maimane said.

Source : XINHUA