Cape Town parents demand classrooms for their kids

More than 100 adults and children have protested in Macassar, Cape Town, to demand that mobile classrooms be built for primary school pupils.

The Cape Times reported that the group blocked Baden Powell drive on Monday.

They were angry that around 470 of their children had apparently been left without a school to attend at the start of the year.

They claimed the Western Cape education department undertook last year to erect mobile classrooms, but this was denied by the department.

Bronagh Casey, spokeswoman for MEC Donald Grant, told the newspaper the department planned to build a new primary school in the area by 2016.

"The department has yet to identify a site for this school, but once identified and secured, we can then start planning for a new primary school in the area," she said.

A list had been handed to officials with the names of more than 400 pupils who needed to be placed.

However, it was reportedly found that only 130 of these needed places as some were already enrolled or were not of school-going age.

Casey told the newspaper that officials would meet with principals in the area on Wednesday to determine the number of spaces still available.