A police officer counts "fine" for the car he's leaning against after the traffic officer who impounded it demanded 10,000 SSP for its release in April 2019 at Buluk | Credit | Ayuen Panchol/Eye Radio

The head of the traffic police department is turning the people against the government by ordering an illegal crackdown

on tinted vehicles, the spokesperson of the national assembly has said.

On Friday last week, the traffic police returned to the road again – harassing motorists in Juba over tinted windows despite the revocation of the ban by the cabinet recently.

The officers, with the help of armed security personnel, resumed the crackdown on cars with tinted windows.

They say they are acting on an order by the director of traffic Police – General Kon John Akot.

They charge 5,000 Pounds – which they say gives the owner the right to drive around for 6 months.

One of the motorists whose vehicle was impounded this week said she was forced to pay 7,000 pounds.

On 14 June, the minister of information announced that motorists using vehicles with factory tints are exempted from the order that had earlier banned them.

The revocation came two weeks after the minister of Interior – Michael Chiengjiek – told the traffic police and other members of the organized forces that those driving vehicles with tinted windows were considered “criminals,” and if anyone refused to stop when ordered, the officers were “free to shoot.”

This directive was described as “irresponsible, dangerous and unlawful” by a parliamentarian and an activist.

Honorable Paul Yoane, the chairperson for information committee at the TNLA, said the order by the director-general of traffic police is unlawful.

“The government of the Republic of South Sudan is an institution. One person cannot challenge, cannot set the public against the government,” Hon. Yoane told Eye Radio’s Dawn on Friday.

He suggested that Gen. Akot be dismissed from his duties.

“After all, we are servants; we need to see new faces – faces that serve the interest of the people of this country, people that will not agitate the public.”

Paul Yoane went on to say that the directive was not based on any traffic law.

He called on the minister of interior to put his house in order:

“He [Gen. Kon] was saying they are enforcing the law. You cannot enforce the law without quoting it. So the minister of interior should look, should check his house.”

Initially, the traffic police department said that it did want tinted vehicles because the motorists were “carrying other people’s wives and daughters,” annoying members of the public who questioned the thinking of the traffic police.

Recently, Gen. Akot said that tinted vehicles are used to commit heinous crimes in the capital.

He could not however, explain how the registration of the vehicles would help reduce the alleged crimes committed by occupants of the cars.

Previously, President Salva Kiir and Defense Minister Gen. Kuol Manyang said most of the night crimes are committed by “weak-hearted” members of the organized forces, particularly National Security, SSPDF, and the regular police.