By Taban Gabriel
King News 23rd Sept 2024 Juba – The superficially glorious Payam Headquarters of Mangala has been conquered by bats, forcing the Payam officials to operate under a tree for two years running. The Payam HQ sits in a vast land covered with wild Lalop trees, with three flags flying high in front of the building
On Friday, the Deputy Executive Director of Mangala Town, Payam Benson Yona, said, “It’s hard for a person to spend only a few minutes inside the room”
“Ah well this building I think the challenge here, is that, it has been invaded by bats, so actually five minutes to take you there is very difficult” Yona said
Deputy Executive Director of Mangala Town, Payam Benson Yona (Photo Credit: Taban Gabriel, King News)
The wild birds captured both the ceiling board and the wall of the local government building leaving behind dark brown accumulated spots inside the whole building.
The stinking emission discharge from the wild birds’ urines, spreads across the whole compound of the government facility.
From a distance of 10 meters, sounds of the bats from inside the building could be heard, while some few bats are visible wondering around the building.
Yona said they (Payam officials) operate from a veranda or a nearby make ship house built by the displaced communities when it rains
To preserve Payam secret files, the deputy director keeps them in his house.
“The documents of course, because we are like a mobile sort of office,” he said
Amidst the invasion by bats, the facility is also grappling with cracks in the wall of the building.
“Mangala seems to be a route for earthquake, so when you go around, you see a lot of cracks, that’s why we are not been able to be accommodated there since we were deployed here,” he said
The Payam official call for “rescue in terms of office accommodation” from the State Government
When asked about the government plan for Mangala’s facility, the Central Equatoria State Local Government Minister, Leon Abe Brown, said he didn’t receive an official communication about the condition of the facility but said the government will devise an “as soon as possible means to solve the problem”
“We need to get an immediate rescue of the place; emergency and we will work out as a ministry within a shortest time” he said.