The Juba City Council has directed all shop owners within the city to paint their shops within one month and that defaulters will be subjected to punitive measures and or fines.
Earlier last week, the city council issued a standing order that all the shops within the city be painted blue and yellow.
According to the director of the Juba Blocks in the City Council, John Ponsiano, the authority has ordered the traders to start painting their shops within one month from the day the order was issued.
"The order will work for one month and after one month anybody who did not implement this order will be punished," said Ponsaiano. “I put in that standing order that all the shop doors must be painted blue and the walls yellow.”
He said that all the premises in front of the shops have to be clean and devoid of rubbish.
Last week, the first deputy chairman of the National Chamber of Commerce, Lodu Lukak, confirmed the order and said it must be implemented.
“Well, they have ordered that all shops must be painted and it is the order from the government and whoever will not implement the order will likely pay a fine ranging from 2,000 to 3,000 US dollars,” Lukak said.
For his part, the Chairman for the state Chamber of Commerce, Robert Pitia, said that the traders are facing a lot of challenges because of the orders being imposed by the Juba City council and called on them to reconsider the order.
"If the traders are going to use their money for painting, they are going to add on the prices of their commodities in the markets to gain back their money which will also affect the citizens," Pitia said.
He added, "If the Juba City Council wants to keep Juba clean, let them also contribute to it because it’s their responsibility after all the traders were not informed earlier.”
The representative of traders in Suk Libya, James Ernesto, welcomed the order and urged traders to implement it.
“Painting shops is okay and this has no problem and it will help the city to be clean so let us avoid paying fines or punishments. For example, if you have not painted your shop, they may take a lot of money from you so let the traders paint their shops," Ernesto said.
Several orders have been issued in the recent past, including directives to reduce prices of commodities and water which were largely ignored.