October 22, 2015.
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sane Dhlamini.
Making headlines:

Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene remains calm amid student storm.

Egypt loyalists to take the lead in parliament elections.

And, President Jacob Zuma to meet students on Friday after protests over fees.

Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene called for a long-lasting solution to financing higher education as he walked past protesting students at parliament yesterday.

This was shortly after he finished delivering his mini budget speech.

Students from universities across South Africa rejected Nzimande's 6% increase cap proposal.

Nene told journalists ahead of his mini budget speech that the 6% cap was a short-term measure that would allow time for a sustainable solution to be found in the long-term.

Nene told parliament that the student fee protest reminded government “of the challenges of financing the expansion of further education and university opportunities”.

 

A political alliance loyal to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has scooped all 60 list seats up for grabs in the first round of a parliamentary election in which opposition parties were all but absent.

The initial round of voting for what would be Egypt's first parliament in three years was held on Sunday and Monday, with turnout at just over a quarter of the electorate.

The vote had been hailed by Sisi as the final step in a political transition that was meant to lead Egypt to democracy but critics said it had been undermined by widespread repression.

All but four of the 226 individual seats up for grabs in round one would be contested in run-offs between leading candidates to take place on October. 26-27 after none of those running clinched more than 50 percent of the vote.

 

South Africa's President Jacob Zuma said on Thursday he will meet student leaders and university authorities on Friday to discuss planned hikes in tuition fees that have sparked a week of nationwide protests, some of which have turned violent.

Zuma had not spoken publicly about the protests before.

Yesterday students stormed the parliament precinct in Cape Town to try to disrupt the reading of Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene's interim budget.

Zuma said nobody disagrees with the message that students from poor households are facing financial difficulties and possible exclusion.

Meanwhile, Nene told a news agency that a process to take money from other skills development funds and move them to university education was already under way, but he didn’t elaborate.

At least 15 of South Africa's universities had seen protests dubbed #FeesMustFall on Twitter since October 13 at Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand.

Also making headlines:

The US State Department expressed concern over reports that South African riot police had fired stun grenades at hundreds of students protesting tuition increases.

South Africa's Reserve Bank Governor said monetary policy would respond if the US Federal Reserve rate hike had caused second round effects such as a depreciation of the rand currency, inflation and a repricing of assets.

And, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's anti-Western rhetoric had been conspicuous by its absence of late, a sign the 91-year-old leader had mellowed or realised that Zimbabwe may need financial help.

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That’s a roundup of news making headlines today