The government has said its recent decision to adjust the country’s time zone will not affect number of working hours per day but making life easy for employees in South Sudan.

Last week the cabinet chaired by President Salva Kiir Mayardit approved the readjustment of the time zone to two hours back from the current three hours off the Greenwich.

The adjustment is expected to be effective from February 1, 2021, moving the clock one hour back.

Minister of Information and Broadcasting Michael Makuei Lueth told the media on Tuesday that the move was to make work more convenient for employees.

“The change of the time zone will not have negative impact on us, this is to make life easy for employees. So if you get up at 6 O’clock according to our local time that will be 5 O’clock instead of 6 O’clock, which is still dark,” Makuei said.

South Sudan inherited the current time zone from Sudan since independence in 2011 but Sudan later moved to the Central Africa Time Zone that it had used up to the 1990s.

According to Makuei, the current time zone places the country between latitude 30 and 45 degrees instead of South Sudan actual location between latitude 15 and 30 degrees, questioning the scientific base of the current zone.

“Why is it that it (South Sudan) has adopted that system at the time that system is not under it?” Makuei questioned.