Students across the country on Wednesday appeared to have heeded a call by the South African Students Congress (Sasco) for a national shutdown of the country’s tertiary institutions. Sasco had made the plea for “mass action against fee increments” on Monday.“We are calling on government to introduce a moratorium on fee increments across all universities and for the Minister of Higher Education‚ Blade Nzimande‚ to speedily introduce free education‚” the organisation said.#NationalShutDown replaced the various #FeesMustFall hashtags that had accompanied social media posts about protest actions at the University of the Witwatersrand‚ University of Fort Hare‚ Rhodes University and the University of Cape Town since last week‚ with students reporting action at previously unaffected universities.Universities have curtailed or cancelled academic and other activities citing safety concern for students and staff.Sasco’s statement on Monday‚ however‚ called for "We appeal on our comrades to interpret this as a call for aggressive mass mobilisation rather than vandalism of our institutions." — Thato Darko (@Epignostic) October 20, 2015asyncBusiness Day reported on Wednesday that students on Tuesday rejected a 6% cap on university fee increases for 2016 announced by Nzimande.On Tuesday‚ Nzimande had a marathon meeting with university stakeholders in Cape Town."I urge students to accept this offer …. In all conflict situations‚ there is always necessity to compromise so that no one party gets 100% of what it wants … otherwise we will not resolve the challenges‚" Business Day quoted him as saying.Meanwhile‚ the Democratic Alliance Student Organisation is taking its protest on Wednesday – “in solidarity with the many students across SA who are being excluded from tertiary education” – to the Department of Higher Education and Training offices in Tshwane.It student representative council presidents from three varsities are expected to lead what it calls the “#BladeMustFall picket”.SAPS don't fire rubber bullets, stun grenades & pepper spray at peaceful students without orders. If they are:God help us! #NationalShutdown — Mabine Seabe II (@Mabine_Seabe) October 21, 2015 asyncin 1994 ANC promised "quality free education". the students protesting now, were not even born there most of them. #NationalShutDown— andile (@Mngxitama) October 21, 2015async Love how all tertiary institutions are united and coordinated. Today there's a #NationalShutDown. Solidarity — Firebrand (@simphiwedana) October 21, 2015async ..