Emmanuel Khamis, the Commissioner of Lainya County - Courtesy

The government of Central Equatoria State has tasked the Acting Mayor of Juba City to prioritize the sanitation of the town and the security of the residents.

Emmanuel Khamis, until now Lainya County Commissioner has replaced Michael Lado Allah – Jabu who was removed in a gubernatorial decree issued by Governor Emmanuel Adil Anthony on Tuesday.

Moro Jenesio, Minister of Local Government and Law Enforcement introduced Khamis to the office and told him to scale up efforts in bringing about reforms to the city.

“Let’s make sure all the reforms are carryout by implementing policies, rules, and orders and we want that to be done,” Moro said.

“The citizens are complaining about the lack of good services because you have failed them as the mayor.”

“Juba City has a lot of things to be done, you are going to embark on the issue of sanitation and security,” he said.

“There is no weekend in the city, the work starts now, and there are public holidays but there are lives that have to be rescued.”

“The City Council operates as a security body and there is no weekend for City Council, everyone has to be working”.

According to Moro, the former mayor had worked so hard to organize the city even though challenges overwhelmed his efforts.

He stressed the need to clean Juba to match other cities in the region and beyond.

“City Council has been very dirty and all of us came into a tradition that even the best carder will not be able to succeed here, he will succeed in one thing and fail in the other,” said Moro.

“The role of His Worship of Emmanuel Khamis is to reform the City Council and, in this reform, so many areas are going to be touched because this is the government and the government is accountable to the people.”

“There has been an outcry about the city, and a lot of things are not going well,” he said.

“We are not saying the outgone Mayor has completely failed, he tried his part just like any other person who was assigned here but the challenges were overwhelming.”

“The task that has now been given to his worship Emmanuel Khamis is to reform the City Council,” he added.

“This is the city, the face of South Sudan, our leaders are staying in dust, everywhere is dirty, we have a lot of visitors coming in, we feel so ashamed when we go to the rest of the cities and we come back to South Sudan, Juba, we see that we are not doing enough”.

On his part, Acting Mayor Emmanuel Khamis pledges to work with the urban dwellers to end the littering of the capital city.

“I want to appreciate the trust of His Excellency the Governor, giving me the responsibility as the Acting Mayor of Juba City Council as I continue discharging my responsibilities as the Commissioner of Lainya County,” said the acting Mayor.

“I always don’t like too much talking, I have come here to do work, I am going to work with everybody.”

“I am not coming here to chase anybody, I am coming to work with everybody who is willing to do the correct work,” he said.

“If Juba is dirty, all of us are dirty. So, we are going to work together with people who are dwellers of Juba City to ensure that, together we make Juba City clean to what we want.”

“There is no way you can turn your own house into a garbage ground and we are going to be serious about that”.