By Yiep Joseph
With drivers being forced to park cars on the roadside in some parts of the city, the question on who is grabbing public bus parks remains unclear.
Till now, some public transport operators remain to park either on roads or on some people’s plots as the wait or commute members of the public.
Such a situation left the public wondering about who really grabbed the public bus parks, or does it mean the space for the public bus park was not surveyed?
A fresh wrangle started over the weekend where some police officers stormed Jebel market bus park with the intention to demolish, citing that they were allotted to someone as shops.
The 155-meter by 20-meter land, according to the drivers, was meant as Jebel Bus Park; however, several individuals continue with the attempts to grab it.
Being located opposite Jebel main market, the park hosts several cars every morning and evening to commute with passengers to different parts of the city, such as Munuki, Newsite, Juba town, Konyo-konyo, among others.
While addressing the media on Sunday regarding the wrangles over Jebel Park, Mr. Lawrence Lado, Chairperson of the Drivers Union in Central Equatoria State, claimed that some police officers stormed the Jebel market with plan to evict the park.
“They(police officers) do not have a document from the court that gives them the right to dismantle structures or evict the park, but because they came as soldiers and with guns, they dismantled,” Lado said.
“Police are the ones who came, and when we inquire about the name of the person who wants the land, they decline to tell us. Even we did not see the Warrant of Arrest,” he added.
Efforts to reach the police to comment on the incident were not successful at the press time.
Lado added that the police, however, detained some of the drivers as well as some of the people working at the park who resisted their decision.
He condemned the act of grabbing public land such as the bus parks and cited that the driver reaffirmed commitment to follow up the case with the government.
“On Monday we shall follow up with the Ministry (Ministry of Housing) because we have the document stating that the showing in the park should stop; we need to see what the Ministry can do,” he said.
He called on the drivers at Jebel Park to stay resilient and continue with their work as the case is being followed.
“I encourage the drivers in the bus park to start their work as we follow the case.”
“Let them continue with their work because yesterday some people stopped their work; I encourage them to continue with their work,” he added.
Lado added that the Union has referred the case to the government to handle, citing that the bus park continues to experience a series of grabbing attempts.
“As the drivers’ union, we referred this case to the government. There are people who have been coming to claim the bus park; when they come, we refer them to the Ministry of Housing, and when they go there, they do not return back,” he said.
“We have the document stopping the allotment of this place, and we have the photocopy,” he added.
On his part, Abraham Chol, the leader of drivers in the Jebel bus park, reiterated that on Saturday a police car arrived at the park.
“Yesterday some police officers came with a Land Cruiser and said that they have a warrant of arrest for any person who stops the showing of the area (park). I told them that the showing was stopped with an order from the Ministry of Housing.” Chol said.
“They (police) said any person who resists should be arrested, and I took them to our office, and the same thing was explained to them,” he added.
He added that the police refused to understand but rather detained him and others.
Chol expressed that some individuals wanted to sell the land, claiming those are their shops.
“We told them that this is a bus park and not shops as claimed by some people who want to grab,” he said.
“This place is a bus park, but there is a dispute, and now someone has made a fence by force using the army,” he added.
He called on the government to resolve the matter, citing that there is a need to stop the ongoing grabbing of the bus parks around the city.
Chol called on the government to intervene, adding that grabbing the bus park will leave drivers with no option but to conditionally stay on the road.
Meanwhile, the document dated 01/09/2025 by the Central Equatoria State Ministry of Housing, Lands, and Public Utilities ordered the stoppage of land showing in Nyakuron South New Market.
The letter, which was issued by Eng. Felix Ramadan Lankiri, the Director General of the State Ministry of Housing, Lands, and Public Utilities, was addressed to the director of Survey to stop the showing in Jebel.
“Due to the complaint from the owners of the plots to my office regarding the dispute facing the owners on the ground, you are hereby requested to stop the showing in any block of the above-mentioned area in order to avoid any dispute until the issue is resolved,” the statement partly read.
Last month the Central Equatoria State government suspended illegal forms of road demarcation in the Lokwilili residential area of Juba County.
In a statement issued by the Central Equatoria State Governor’s Press Unit, the State Minister of Housing, Lands, and Public Utilities, David Morbe, ordered the security organs in the area to stop road work.
“All security organs in the area should enforce the order halting road works,” the statement partly read.
This followed other orders made to curb land grabbing in Central Equatoria.