That's a condescending argument based on a lack of understanding of the huge diversity that exists between African countries in economic performance and activism.

South Africa has not had 'decades of mostly war, misery and poverty', it's the most developed country in Africa, has consistently been one of the continent's wealthiest and aside from some brief political violence during the transition from Apartheid it has been entirely peaceful.

This means your conclusion is flawed: South African industry and manufacturing has declined significantly over the past ten years as a result of flawed government economic and labour policies policies, not increased. The country's growth rate has stalled to just 1.5% of GDP and unemployment has increased to 25% under the standard definition and over 40% under the expanded definition. The mining sector, once a big part of the South African economy, is collapsing.

At the same time, the ANC has more than doubled the number of civil servants and paid them inflated salaries, resulting in a state wage bill that takes up a whopping 45-50% of the entire government's budget. That's one reason why government subsidies for universities have been steadily decreasing over the past decade, forcing universities to increase fees to make up the difference. What's worse is that the universities are facing higher-than-inflation cost increases of their own, thanks to a severe shortage of academics, the decline of the Rand against the US Dollar and big increases in the price of electricity.

There is a state entity that's supposed to aid poor students with student loans, called NSFAS, but it's extremely dysfunctional, riddled with corruption and effectively bankrupt so it only supports a relatively small number of students.

There simply isn't enough available money remaining to increase those subsidies either, given that the Treasury's contingency reserve for the next three years was swallowed up by a R60 billion increase in civil servant salaries and VAT, personal and business taxes are all comparatively high already.

Thus what we're seeing now is born of frustration on the part of students, who are facing 10-12% increases in student fees, insufficient bursaries or loans and an uncertain future where most will probably be unable to find employment even if they beat the odds and become one of the 30% or so of students who actually finish their degrees. The level of political organisation and dynamism shown by the students may indeed be a positive thing over the long term, it's too soon to tell just yet, but at the moment it shares more in common with the boiling over seen during the Arab Spring than anything else.

As an aside, you mentioned mg.co.za. That's the site of the Mail & Guardian which is 30 year old weekly newspaper, not new online publication. Their website was created in 1995, but the paper itself dates from 1985 when staff of the closing Rand Daily Mail and Sunday Express (founded in 1902 and 1934 respectively) got together to form it. Sadly it, too, is going bankrupt, in part thanks to a government decision that all state job and tender advertising only be channeled through newspapers that are considered 'friendly'.

In short, these protests are a symptom of South Africa's economic and political stagnation and mismanagement, especially over the past few years under the leadership of Jacob Zuma. It's not a new dynamism in a swiftly-growing country.