S. Sudan to share time zone with Sudan, Egypt

JUBA – South Sudan government has announced that the country from February 1 will change its time zone and will share time zone with the neighboring Sudan and the Arab Republic of Egypt, according to information minister Michael Makuei Lueth.

The African continent’s youngest country has been using the same time zone with other East African countries.

Speaking to reporters on Friday in Juba during a cabinet meeting, Makuei said the world’s youngest nation will no longer use East African Time.

“It is passed by the cabinet that our official time zone should be time hours from Greenwich Time and this will be effective from 1 of February 2021.That is from 1 of February 2021, we shall be 2 hours not 3 hours as the case is now. We will not be in accordance with East African’s community Greenwich Time so our time will be different, they will be 3 hours and our time will be 2 hours,” Makuei said

The government official said the change came when it was realized that the country is at 30th longitude.

“The cabinet came to realize that our current time zone is not our exact zone. We are late longitude 30 and the difference between the Greenwich Mean Time of UTC and the longitude of every 15 minute is 1 hour. So we are in the 30th longitude and as such we are supposed to be 2 hours ahead of Greenwich Time,”

He said the new time zone will benefit workers and students whose use to get up when it is still dark in the morning.

“If you used to come at 6 as it is the case now, you will come at 7 and 7 will be our now 6 in the morning. Because it has been realized that as you might have also seen when it is 6 hour in the morning here it is still dark and the workers who are the cleaners who are supposed to come to the offices may not make it at that particular time. This also has a negative impact on the people who go to school when schools are reopened; they are expected to be in school at 7 and they are expected to get up at 6 and by then when it is 6 it will be dark,” he explained.