An injured bodaboda operator receiving treatment at Bor Teaching hospital [©Gurtong]
By Pow James Raeth
BOR, 23rd January 2012 [Gurtong] - Several boda boda (motorcycle taxi) operators in Bor town clashed and injured their foreign counterparts for threatening their business last Friday before the police intervened to rescue the them, some of the injured are hospitalised in Bor Teaching hospital.
The two groups clashed as the native boda boda operators barred the foreigners from operating in Bor town while claiming that it was basically a local small scale business and not a foreign investment.
One of the Bor-based boda boda operator questioned, “how can someone cross his own country border to a foreign nation just to invest in boda boda business only?”
“We are not chasing the foreigners out of our county, but they should invest in a reasonable business and leave other businesses like boda boda transport and hawking to the natives,” he added.
The foreign boda boda operators claimed that, they transport their clients at a cheaper price than the Bor-based operators hence making the competition high hence sparking the conflict.
In a particular distance, the native operators would charge SSP 5 unlike their foreign counterparts who would charge at 3 SSP. This disparity alone could create tensions between them.
Authorities in Bor County last Saturday decided to halt the foreigners from doing business until the matter is resolved. The County police officials said that the move was to prevent destruction and loss of properties or lives. Bor Commissioner Mr. Maker Lual could not be reached for a comment on the matter at the time.
In Bor town just like Juba and other towns of South Sudan most of the small scale businesses like boda boda operations, cart pushing, hawking, bartending are mostly run by foreigners, the State Minister of Labour and Public Service Ms Racial Nyadak Paul said there are also foreigners working in Government Ministries and Institutions.
Boda-boda (or bodaboda) is a motorcycle/bicycle taxi, originally in East Africa (from English border-border)