A GROUP of parents who locked the gates of Duduzani Primary School in Lindelani, north of Durban, demanding renovations to the institution, have landed themselves in trouble.

Yesterday an angry KwaZulu-Natal MEC for education Senzo Mchunu,pictured, visited the school and said those responsible "will face criminal charges".

On Monday, the parents went on the rampage at the school, allegedly smashing and breaking windows and demanding that the education department fix the buildings "immediately".

The parents had been going to the school since last week to demand that the buildings be fixed. When nothing happened, they locked the gates on Monday.

Teaching at the school has been disrupted for more than a week.

Mchunu said the province was "faced with a R44billion infrastructure backlog, which is why we are battling to rebuild some schools. This is unacceptable. No amount of anger should be equal to this. Whoever did this will have to pay. I am very unhappy about this. I fail to understand what kind of parent would jeopardise the future of his own child simply because he or she wants infrastructure. Actually, in the province, there are far worse schools than this.

"For example, in Jozini, there's a school which has no single building but parents have not acted like this," he said.

Mchunu said although he was still to meet officials from the infrastructural department, he was aware that a contractor had been appointed and that construction would start at the end of this month.

He said he was also concerned at the safety of teachers who, despite all the problems, had come to school, only to be locked out.

"We will have to accommodate them in nearby schools until the situation is sorted out," Mchunu said.

Dumisani Sibaya, Sadtu regional chairperson, commended the teachers for their commitment.

Chairperson of the school's governing body Sam Mthembu said: "As parents, we are angry because the tender to rebuild the school was approved in 2008, but to date nothing has happened."