By William Madouk
South Sudan National Bureau of Standards (SSNBS) has destroyed expired and substandard goods, worth millions of South Sudanese pounds at Korok dumping sites.
Destruction on Saturday followed country-wide seizures of the harmful goods by the SSNBS market surveillance team of Quality Assurance Department, since the festival season.
In Juba city, Malakia, Konyo-Konyo, customs markets, supermarkets, and some hotels were key areas of interest.
The destroyed goods included food stuff, lubricants and electronics, which were found expired, damaged, fake and others of poor quality.
According to the SSNBS chairperson, Dr. Kuorwel Kuai Kuorwel, the destruction is part of the Bureau of Standards’ efforts to curb the prevalence of counterfeit products in the country.
“Pursuant to Chapter II, Section 8, Subsection (J), and Section 9, Subsection 2(c) of the SSNNBS Act, 2012, these 5,000 assorted goods cannot be allowed in the market,” Kuorwel said.
“The products are to be destroyed in accordance with chapters 3, 23.6, and 25 of the SSNBS Regulations,” he added.
Last year, a joint inspection team was activated to enforce standards in the markets. The 4-day mission did a spot check on electronic shops, factories, and slaughterhouses, among others.
In his statement, Dr. Kuorwel added that they carried out market inspections during Christmas to ensure that traders sell quality goods, and the campaign also aimed to weed off counterfeit products.
Furthermore, the boss of the Bureau of Standards also warned businesspeople against selling fake goods.
“We therefore want to warn the business community that selling expired goods is an offence under Section 27, Subsection 1(c) of the SSNBS Act, 2012,” he stressed.
On his part, the Minister of Trade and Industry, William Anyuon Kuol, expressed his worries about fake lubricant that would spoil cars and make people spend unnecessary money to repair vehicles.
Mr. Kuol cherished the campaign to clamp down on fake and counterfeit products in the capital, Juba. He further said they would soon go to all states and three administrative areas to do the same.
“Due to the rampant smuggling, most of the goods don’t have a certificate of conformity (CoC), and so they bring into the country substandard goods, and this is what you can see here,” he said.
“I was surprised this morning that most of the lubricants are either expired or substandard, and I told the team that the convoy of our leaders is also using the same lubricants, so this is dangerous to the people of South Sudan, including the leadership,” he added.
Mr. Kuol stated this time that they would not only go for penalties because those illicit business people can pay and go scot-free; thus, they would be sentenced to prisons to discourage the act.
“If we get the doers, we will not only give them penalties because penalties they don’t and are ready to pay, so for this particular time, what we will do is take these people to court.” Kuol
“To our surprise, you can see other items of very high quality from very big hotels—the five-star hotels that we think have the ability to give us something that meets standards,” he wondered.