A foreigner’s impression of Juba, South Sudan.

Despite having spent the night on the cold and hard metal seats at Kigali
International Airport, courtesy of some bungling by RwandAir (a story for another
day), colleagues Tawanda Mudimu, Kudakwashe Njobvu and myself were in high
spirits as the public address system crackled to announce that our flight to Juba,
South Sudan was now boarding.
As we settled on the small bombardier that would take us to Juba, via Entebbe
International Airport in Uganda, anxiety gripped me as I anticipated the turbulence
that I have grown to associate with flying in a small aircraft.
Fused with the anticipation and anxiety off how Juba, South Sudan’s capital would
turn out to be, nothing, not even the bombardier’s captain’s voice could calm my
nerves.
I had read and heard about the volatility of war-torn South Sudan but their embassy
in Harare had assured me the peace agreement signed between South Sudan's
President Salva Kiir and main rebel leader Vice President Mr Riek Machar in
September 12, formally ending a five-year war that has killed tens of thousands was
holding out.

The media had reported that the deal, mediated by Sudan and signed in the
Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, reinstated Machar in his former role as vice
president, two weeks after a peace deal was officially agreed between the
government and rebel groups.

The anxiety heightened as the captain announced the descent for Juba landing.
Nothing had prepared us for the blazing 40 degrees hot summer temperatures as we
landed.

The airport, located about 5km northeast of the city's central business district on the
western banks of the majestic River Nile.

The single-terminal airport appeared ill-equipped to handle the amount of

passengers that pass through it every day. Although this reporter could not get
official figures of the human traffic handled by this international airport, it was clear it
was mostly overwhelmed.

South Sudan has arguably the highest number of non-governmental organisations

that bring in foreign aid workers. The UN says about 1,5 million South Sudanese
citizens need humanitarian assistance.

Tents have been set up as makeshift terminals to process departures, arrivals and
baggage claims. And in my heart of hearts, I kept wondering how this rustic structure
qualifies to be an international airport!

I am not an expert in airports, after all.

Security would not allow us to take pictures of the airport, understandably so! And it
was not only the airport which was shielded from our cameras, even normal daily
market activities were not allowed to be pictured or filmed!

Deng would often warn us to exercise extreme caution whenever we decided to use
the cameras!

While the airport processes appear lengthy and chaotic, travellers eventually get
through it all. Talk of order in the disorder!

Because we had our tools of the trade, whose clearance we had paid and sought
through the Media Authority of South Sudan, we were shuttled to the revenue police
who demanded that we show the documents authorising us to bring in such.

Our fixer, God bless him, Deng Machol Monyrach helped us through the process,
explaining to the officials that we had the clearance.

After about 30 or so minutes, we were released. Someone later told us, it could have
been rougher and longer.

Zimbabweans are valued friends of South Sudan!

Our host, the Zimbabwe Republic Police contingent commander Chief

Superintendent Kenia’s Karuru was with us throughout the processes.
The drive to the Logalu Hotel, (a favourite of foreign scribes on assignment to Juba)
lasted seven minutes, a relief for me as I was now drenched in my own sweat from
the sweltering Juba sun.
It turns out Logalu Hotel has the best internet connection in the whole Juba city,
powered by a South African company RCS.
At first sight, the Logalu Hotel appeared a little different from the pictures shown on
their website, but that was no big deal for me. This was going to be my home for the
next five nights, I resolved to make the best out of it!
And like in all conflict riddled countries, the potholed streets of Juba and the general
infrastructure is not impressive.
For an investor, that opens the abundant opportunities abound in South Sudan.
Deng informed me that Ethiopians and Eritreans investors have carved a niche for
themselves in the real estate and tourism sectors. Most if not all new hotels in Juba
belong to Ethiopians or Eritreans investors!
The city of Juba presents abundant opportunities in water and sewerage reticulation
as most properties depend on septic tanks.
At independence, in July 2011, Juba city was mostly made up of a handful of pole
and dagga structures. Massive construction that had started had stalled during the
past five years of war.
Today, Juba has some high rise buildings and more are expected to take shape in
the city where street corners are habited by groups of men partaking in tradition
coffee and tea drinking.
While the streets appeared calm and normal, we were advised of the various
informal night curfews on civilians.
Some curfews start at 7pm, others at 8pm depending on the area.
And trust the journalistic instinct in us, we connived, against the advice of even
Zimbabwe’s ambassador to South Sudan Ambassador Kufa Chinoza, to break the
curfew and explore Juba city at night.
The exploration did not last long, we were stopped by a hoard of heavily armed men,
whom we later learnt were members of the South Sudan national army who were on
patrol.
Being foreigners, moving around with broadcasting equipment at night in clear
violation of a standing curfew made us more suspicious. Our cameras and
accessories were scrutinised and we were questioned on our motives.
Soon after the encounter, we all agreed, we had to stick to our hotel. And stick to our
hotel we did!