State Radio Off – Air Due To Shortage of Fuel

Nyamilepedia Correspondent,

TORIT, South Sudan

August 26, 2016(Nyamilepedia) —– After more than one month, the voice of Eastern Equatoria state owned radio faced seriousus shortage of fuel.

Due to fuel shortage, the State-owned radio 97.FM has been on and off for more than one month, said the first director general in Ministry of information, culture, youth and sport of the Imatong state.

Unhappy with how the economy is deteriorating, shutting down major installations one after another, the Director General, Mr. James Joseph Lemor,  convened all editors, reporters, presenters and news anchors to brief them on some of the current challenges that the ministry is undergoing. that the staff

Lemor said the staffs have to know so that they are updated.

“The minister (minister of information, culture, youth and sport the Imatong state) had serious talks with the mayor of Torit municipal council Eddy William on the issue of the fuel which let the satiation not to operate as usual, nevertheless it was difficult to access the fuel but there is a hope soon the radio will be fully operational, as hope is a journey,”   Lemor told journalists.

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He said he wants his staff not to use the traditional way of reporting and programming but rather use the more advance media reporting and production in the multimedia system.

“ Once the challenge is dealt with, I will introduce the clear program schedule as even the radio has no identification tune, continue announcer, IT and so on which need to be fixed,” Lemor said.

Meanwhile Ochen Obur Okello, a presenter and reporter at the radio station, pointed out some of the internal challenges such as no station telephone line, no clear programme schedule, no job description, no cooperation between the radio and directorate of information in attending the editor’s forum which he said has been blocking some reporters from being active in the field.

“Some time I do used my MTN phone line that only used my personal MTN sim card and one time when am presenting a programme at radio station I removed my vivacell line and fixed in the station vivacell line of which I received a call through my MTN line while presenting a program, I realized later when that person is speaking in my local language then I decided to closed imagine this mess,” Ochen lamented.

He said he wishes the ministry, through the first director general, could do their best to resolve the mentioned challenges.

Due to war in the country, many national installations and infrastructures have been shut down or destroyed at crossfire.

Hospitals, schools, airport and national courthouses have been shut down, on and off, within the last 2 years due to lack of salary or finances to buy spare parts.

South Sudan, which depends largely on oil, has seen its oil production reduced from over 350, 000 barrel per day to 120, 000 barrel per day due to insecurity around the oil fields.