STAFF at the Gauteng department of infrastructural development were locked inside their offices by a group of National Youth Service Learnership holders yesterday.

The group, who had blockaded all entrances to the building, accused the department of failing to deliver on its promises, including paying their monthly stipends on time.

Old office shelves and red tapes were used to blockade the entrance to the building.

"We are going to render the department ungovernable. No one is leaving this building until the MEC comes out to address us," shouted one of the group.

The group had marched from the Johannesburg Metro Centre and made its way to the offices in the CBD at about 9am. The protesters wanted to deliver a memorandum to MEC Qedani Mahlangu, Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane and city manager Trevor Fowler.

They demanded that their monthly stipends be increased from R1490 to R4500.

They also complained that the department did not have a strategy to integrate them into the working world upon completion of the internship.

Some of them carried signs reading: "R4,500 or Marikana!"

Learner Mkhululi Nkosi said they were looking to Marikana as a source of inspiration because, despite the bad things that happened there, it yielded results.

Some of the learners claimed they had not been paid for November.

Department spokesman Thulasizwe Simelane, who was also trapped in the building, said the MEC would not address the group because they did not announce their intention beforehand .

After three hours of picketing, MEC Mahlangu appeared from the building to address the group. She appealed to the group to forward their grievances to the relevant department.