several hundreds of protesters demonstrating for better service delivery in South Africa have clashed with police, hurling a petrol bomb at police officers, blocking roads and set tyres alight in Cape Town, according to local media reports.

Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at the demonstrators and temporarily closed the main access route to the Cape Town International Airport from the highway, as part of a series of service delivery protests to hit the city on Friday.

"Currently on the scene it is quiet but very tense still," Captain Frederick van Wyk, police spokesman, said, adding that the road was being cleared.