Soweto residents barricaded roads with stones and burning tyres, leaving commuters stranded in an attempt to force power utility Eskom to listen to their grievances following three weeks of blackouts in the area.

The protest was on its third day yesterday.

Ntsakisi Mabaso, 34, said she hadn’t been to work for the past three days and was worried about salary cuts.

“I don’t get a lot of money and now I will lose the little that I get.”

However, the mother of a 9-year-old child supported of the protest.

“I buy R100 electricity units weekly, but now my child and I have to take cold baths in this cold weather. We sometimes try and use a paraffin stove to heat the water, but the gas makes us sick.

“The food in the refrigerator is spoiled, so we have to buy kotas (bunny chow) every day with the last money we have. It’s really bad, which is why I am fully behind the protest,” she said.

Orlando East residents said they were angry with the power utility and wanted nothing but basic services delivered to them. However, Eskom blamed illegal connections and the overloading of the system for the blackouts.

Tebogo Tenyane, a resident, said it was unfair that other parts of the township had electricity, but not them.

“Eskom has been called and we have reference numbers from them and we have sent letters and emails about the blackouts.

“We followed every procedure communicated to us, but nothing has been done hence we took it to the streets to fight for a basic right,” he said.

Soweto has seen multiple protests recently over electricity blackouts following reports that it owed the power utility more than R18 billion in unpaid electricity bills.

The power utility said technicians had been deployed on site to repair the damaged infrastructure and were working to restore supply.

“Some members of the community bypass the meters, illegally connect themselves to the network, and vandalise electricity infrastructure, which leads to sporadic power interruptions.

“This is because the transformers become overloaded, particularly during the winter period, and subsequently catch fire or explode as their protections have been interfered with and vandalised,” Eskom spokesperson Dikatso Mothae said.

A ward councillor in the area, Sechaba Khumalo, said power outages were a “big challenge” in the entire township because of the residents who interfered with Eskom’s infrastructure.

Khumalo said as much as residents needed to be encouraged to pay for services, there was also a problem of affordability that required help from the government.

“Today we will be resuming negotiations with a team of Soweto ward councillors and regional directors to try to find a way forward regarding the electricity issue, because almost all the wards in Soweto are experiencing the same problem,” he said.

The residents have threatened to barricade the N17, Caroline garage, Diepkloof and the rest of Soweto should they not have electricity in their houses by today.

Joburg metro police have been diverting traffic away from the area where there protest was held.