Motorists going to work and taking children to school were forced to use the N12 as an alternative route when Freedom Park and Lehae residents blocked the Golden Highway on Monday morning.
The residents were protesting over land and housing.
JMPD spokesperson Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar said the protest started in the early hours of Monday morning where residents took to the Golden Highway, burning tyres and closing the road with rocks.
Earlier this year, the residents took to the streets, demanding that they be provided with housing stands.
Joyce Ngubani from Freedom Park told The Star that all she wanted was “a decent house as promised by the ruling party, the African National Congress.”
Motorist were forced to turn back and find alternative routes when residents of Lehae and Freedom Park blocked the Golden Highway, demanding land and houses. Picture: Emlyn Kroo
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Ngubani has spent the last 20 years in a shack. The 59-year-old who lives with her four children said she was tired of empty promises by the ANC.
According to Ngubani, last year the government promised to address the longstanding land issue, housing shortage, electricity and water.
“We have been waiting for land stands promised to us by the then Gauteng Human Settlements MEC Paul Mashatile and Lindiwe Sisulu who was the minister of Human Settlements. They came here and promised many of use here in Freedom Park that we will get stands, but there is nothing,” said Ngubani.
Residents from both communities were later expected to demonstrate outside the ANC's Luthuli House headquarters in the Joburg CBD.
@SthembisoMedia