South Sudan’s Ministry of Interior in collaboration with a private company, Great City for Logistics and Supply Company Limited, officially launched the issuance of vehicle logbooks and driving licenses in the Eastern Equatoria State capital Torit on Tuesday.
According to the acting director of traffic police in Eastern Equatoria State, Col. Leonard Peter John, motorists, and vehicle owners no longer have to travel to Juba for services. The motorcycle and automobile logbook will cost SSP 70,000 and 90,000 respectively while a driver will part with SSP 70,000 for a license.
“I want to inform the people of Eastern Equatoria that the traffic police is not the one that brought this company that is going to issue logbooks and driving licenses but the Government of South Sudan which is all of us,” he said. “So, all of you who have attended this event should go and tell the people that this company has come to make their lives easy by issuing the documents here in Torit.”
Col. Peter also decried the shortage of traffic police personnel in the state to enforce traffic laws and said the 180 policemen he has cannot serve the population of over a million people.
For his part, Bosco Juma Daniel, the director general in charge of logistics and supply at the Great City Company, urged the Bodaboda (motorcycle taxi) riders associations in the state to obey the law and ensure all members acquire logbooks and riding licenses.
“We intend to provide services to all in South Sudan. It was not easy for us to come here because the same services are needed in other states but the traffic police in Torit struggled until we came,” he said. “Although our office here is small, we offer all the services and you will not have to go to Juba again. I urge the traffic police department to order motorists from all the counties to come and collect their licenses. We are working in collaboration with the government and they receive their revenues.”
Meanwhile, Francis Oting Otee, the secretary-general of the state drivers’ union, welcomed the extension of the services to the state but decried the illegal fees extorted from drivers at numerous checkpoints along the highways.
“If the different security forces know that you are going to Juba from Torit, they extort a lot of money from you. When you reach Nesitu, there are four offices; Military Intelligence, CID, the traffic police, and highway police, and each takes SSP 2,000 but they give you a receipt of 1,000. So, you end up paying SSP 20,000 along the way and if you do not pay and or resist, they detain you,” he lamented. “Then the fire brigade and the civil defense also demand money even if you have all the requirements. We request the government to intervene because fuel prices also keep rising yet we do not increase the fare.”
Eastern Equatoria State Deputy Governor Mary Alphonse Lodira hailed the national interior ministry for prioritizing the state to issue logbooks and driving licenses.
“If a motorcyclist or driver does not have a license or logbook, they have to be fined heavily and the vehicle has to be detained until the fines are paid,” she stated. “Also, children who are underage should not ride motorbikes or drive cars.”
On the issue of soldiers and the police collecting money that is not receipted from drivers of passenger vehicles, Lodira said the culprits have to be identified and brought to book.
“You cannot collect money from someone without the owner knowing where it is going. The people collecting this money and where they work should be identified,” she directed. “These are some of the things spoiling this country and if we do not stop the collection up to SSP 20,000 SSP per driver illegally, then we are going in the wrong direction.”