Around 600 learners at the Hendrik Kanise Combined School in Alicedale in the Eastern Cape were prevented from attending classes after angry parents blocked the school gates this week.

The parents say the dilapidated school poses a danger to their children.

School Governing Chairperson Body Mxoleli Mshweshwe says they have reached out to the authorities, but nothing has been done.

“As from 2009, we have been waiting for the contractors to build a school. Now the school hasn’t been built up until today, and we have struggled up until today. The students now are out of the school because of the community. The problem is the upstairs can collapse at any time, toilets are not working and we don’t have water here, and also children are playing at that building that can fall at any time.”

Provincial Education Department spokesperson Vuyiseka Mboxela has attributed the delay in the construction of a new school to budget constraints.

“It’s just on the 8th of this month where the MEC was speaking on the budget plans of the department, and this is one of the schools that we are going to prioritise this year, and I must also say that already there was an interaction that was happening between the department and the school and their appointed service provider, but it got stalled because of some internal issues which relate to the availability of the budget.”