The Juba City Council (JCC) in Central Equatoria State has suspended the operations of three local companies it contracted to collect garbage and keep Juba clean and green over poor service delivery.

The companies were contracted to manage garbage collection and waste disposal in the blocks of Juba, Kator, and Munuki.

Addressing reporters in Juba on Friday, JCC First Deputy Mayor for Administration and Finance Mogga Franco Wani said they suspended the companies whose names he did not disclose because they failed to keep the city clean and green.

“Earlier this (Friday) morning, as acting mayor and also as the first deputy mayor for administration and finance, we suspended the operations of three companies contracted by JCC,” he said. “Their job description was simple; garbage collection and cleaning of the three blocks.”

According to Wani, the companies that have worked for only 7 months were suspended due to a deficiency of capacity and lack of human resources to manage garbage collection in the city.

“We all know that this is a public responsibility that these companies are undertaking on behalf of the city council,” he explained. “We discovered that in terms of capacity and human resources, the situation keeps on worsening in terms of garbage collection and cleaning in three blocks of JCC.”

The acting mayor added: “At the end of the day, the city council is accountable and I think it is time we decided as JCC to suspend these companies.”

Meanwhile, Thiik Thiik Mayardit, the Deputy Mayor for Social Services, said the companies were suspended based on key issues including a lack of equipment and capacity and cash to manage waste.

“We terminated the companies because they do not have human resources, they are not capable of doing the work and they do not have cars. They were using vehicles that were purchased by the city council to manage garbage,” he clarified. “The other issue is that they do not have money and only wait until people collect the money and this is when they are given 70 percent so that they can manage the garbage.”

On 7 June 2023, JCC terminated the contract of the East Africa Go Green Company over its failure to keep Juba clean and green after it violated their agreement by stopping collecting garbage in the city for two months.

Juba residents have recently raised concerns over the huge mounds of uncollected garbage along the streets and in marketplaces, which are an eyesore and could potentially lead to health crises.