South Sudan announces new time zone
As of 1st February 2021, the Republic of South Sudan will adopt a different time zone. Therefore, the current 1:00 a.m. in the capital, Juba, will be set at 12:00 a.m.
The Republic of South Sudan, through its Ministry of Labor, has announced a significant development that will see the nation move to a different time zone.
“The Ministry of Labor at this moment informs all public service institutions, commissions, diplomatic missions, United Nations agencies, international and national non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the general public that South Sudan changed its official time from UTC +3 to UTC = 2, which is based on South Sudan’s actual location on the globe,” a letter from the ministry read.
According to Mrs. Mary Wani Pitia, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Labor of this 9-year-old North-East African nation, “the present time will be put back by an hour”. The implication being: the current 1:00 a.m. in the capital, Juba, will be fixed at 00.00, as of 1st February 2021.
Known colloquially as the youngest nation in the African continental bloc, South Sudan has maintained its working hours from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., as is the case in countries like Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Burundi, which form the block of East Africa.
According to Greenwich Meridian Time, government spokesman Michael Makuei Lueth told The East African on Friday that the country was not using it in real-time.
“The current time zone is not our actual time zone… ‘We are in the 30th longitude, and as such, we are supposed to be two hours ahead of the Greenwich time zone. So it was clear that the Far East is 2.4 hours and the Far West 1.6 hours,’ she said. Ms. Wani rallied stakeholders to “watch the new hour”.
