The legislators doubling up as the quarters councilors of Juba City Council began an awareness campaign to sensitise the Juba residents about the town rate and by-laws that were amended in 2020.

The town rate is the annual payment for the service delivery by the residents.

According to the councillors, the citizens of Juba town are not aware of the town rate and some of the by-laws guiding them in the residential areas.

“Many of our citizens do not know the town rate. It is collected annually [and] they pay the fees so that it can fund as service delivery for them. We are doing the campaign to make them understand because we are lacking trucks for collecting garbage and water tankers for providing water,” Egidlo Osualdio Ayuk, the Head of Committee Public Work Affairs of Juba City Legislative Assembly told City Review .

“In many counties this fees is collected monthly for the service delivery,” he added

He said the campaign for creating the awareness will go round the residential areas in Juba city.

Normally, SSP20 is levied in the current rate but he said due to the depreciating value of the pounds, the councillors are considering coming up with new rates.

 “After the information has reached the citizens, we will start the work of fees collection. [It] will be the responsibility of the area quarters council to collect the money from each block,” he said.

Cleanliness   

He warned that cleaning exercise will be order a binding responsibility for every city dweller.

“Cleaning the city will starts from your home. If you do not clean your front fence [then] there is a fine of SSP50, 000 for an Non-governmental organization and SSP10,000 for an individual,” he said.

In his part, the Chairperson Juba City Legislative Assembly, Peter Paulino Loro, said the by-laws are functional and there is need for the citizens to know them.

“It has been made to control and regulate the behaviour of the citizens .We are not going to punish the people but we want them to know that there are laws in place. If you follow those by laws correctly you will be fine ,”he said.

“We are doing this because people don’t want to respect the laws. We want all the roads to be open within the residential areas [and all these are guided by] the by-laws that we have been amended,”he added.

He said the awareness will continue until the residents are fully sensitised. Mr Loro said councillors will do the campaign every Saturday and will rotate in all the quarters’ council blocks.  The campaign started in Kator and will go to Juba and Munuki blocks.