The residents of Rabie Ridge said they had been silent for two long and could no longer tolerate the conditions they were subjected to.

Residents complain their suburb is plagued with overcrowding and unemployment.

“I live with my mother, my two sisters, my wife and my child in one house. I have no privacy,” said Patrick Davids, 26.

Davids and other residents said they want to be allocated RDP houses and they want to jobs.

“If there is one youth working in your house here in Rabie Ridge, consider yourself lucky,” said another resident, Lily Masonte who said she was still living with hall her sons and their children because they were unemployed.

Earlier in the morning there was a heavy police presence and residents said the police  arrested some of them for burning tyres in the streets.

Residents are now gathered on one of the streets they have blocked, waiting for their leaders to address them.

Residents block a street in Rabie Ridge, north of Johannesburg on Thursday morning in protest over their living conditions. Picture supplied.