Butchers in Wau town in South Sudan’s Western Bahr al Ghazal State have staged strikes against a decision taken by the local authorities to set fixed prices for meat at the market.
Last week, Akol Akol Ajieth, Wau town mayor, ordered the butchers to reduce the price of a kilogram of meat from 120 to 50 pounds, saying whoever violates the order will pay a fine of 1,000 SSP.
Andrew Mayor, head of the butcher’s union at Suk Jou, confirmed to Radio Tamazuj that they stopped working since Thursday in protest against the town mayor’s decision reducing the price of meat at the market.
The butcher rejected the price fixing order, while complaining of losses in their businesses following the decision in Wau town. Andrew pointed out that the price of a calf has reached 27,000 SSP at the market.
“The price of cows is very expensive, now one bull cots 27,000 SSP and one bull weighs less than 200 kilograms” said Andrew. So if one kilogram is selling at 50 SSP, then it would be a huge loss, it will bring you 5,000 or 8,000 SSP only “he added.
He underscored that they will not resume work unstill the state government reduces cattle prices at the market. He added that the decision by the mayor was ill-advised.