Residents of Soweto have taken their grievances to the next level.
SEE MORE: Search For Six-Year Old Continues
This comes after they laid various complaints regarding poor service delivery and electricity.
Several roads in Soweto have been closed, as residents of Diepkloof have now taken their grievances to the streets as an indication of their seriousness. Most of the residents have not had electricity for over six months after a transformer failure.
Chris Hani road right next to Maponya Mall has been obstructed with bricks and parts of the pavement that have been demolished. Therefore various roads have been closed following this protest. Most main routes into Soweto remain closed, as they have been barricaded by residents with burning tyres. These routes include Pimville, Jabulani, Diepkloof and Moletsane.
Rea Vaya bus operations have been interrupted as well. Residents have had enough of being in the dark, especially in this cold weather. The City of Johannesburg has also been called out during this protest, as they are expected to respond to service delivery issues.
According to Nhlanahla ‘’Lux’’ Dlamini who is allegedly one of the masterminds of the protest said that they will be marching to the office of the mayor on Tuesday to ensure that their voices and concerns are heard.
The local councillor has also been accused of not being helpful about this situation, as he has not played any role in assisting the people with having their grievances met. ‘’We tried engaging with the councillor, he hasn’t come to any meetings we’ve held’’ said community leader Lungile Lebethe.
The residents of Soweto have vowed to continue with this protest until the power is restored.
Meanwhile, the power utility Eskom says the transformer could have been replaced already. However, they slowed down operations of restoring power when they discovered that most of the residents in this area had illegally installed a transformer and prohibited Eskom technicians from working in the area.
