Africa-Press – South-Sudan. South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit has told lawmakers during his address at the opening session of the reconstituted parliament on Monday that implementing the revitalized peace agreement he signed with various opposition groups in September 2018 is the only way to bring permanent peace to the world’s youngest country.
South Sudan’s bicameral transitional legislature opened on Monday with more than one hours of address to the nation by President Kiir in which he urged the lawmakers drawn from numerous warring factions and signatories of the revitalized peace agreement to not please anyone in enacting laws.
“Our policy objective for the Transitional Period is to end the war by implementing the Revitalized Peace Agreement fully. This Agreement provides the only path to stable and prosperous South Sudan. Let us all therefore strive to implement it as the way of putting our country on the path of permanent stability,” Kiir said on Monday.
The South Sudanese president urged lawmakers to priorities various dossiers the government has already begun and which including the fiscal budget for the year 2021-2022 saying the world’s youngest country cannot operate without an approved budget from the parliament.
“Since February 2020, your counterparts in the Executive Branch have been working. Most of the files they have worked on require your review and approval before they can move forward. Today I am drawing your attention to these files to ensure that they top your legislative agenda,” he said.
“One of such files is the National Budget. It has already been debated and approved by the Cabinet and it awaits your discussion and final approval. I urge you to take this up as a matter of urgency because the country cannot any longer afford to operate without an approved budget,” he added.
He went on to appeal to the legislators to work for the immediate enactment of laws that government the general elections slated for end of the transitional period saying it is the only way the people of South Sudan would exercise their rights in choosing who will lead them.
“As we continue to implement the various chapters and provisions of the Revitalized Peace Agreement, we should always remember that our final mandate in this process is to hold free, fair, and credible democratic elections at the end of the Transitional Period. This means, giving people the power to choose their leaders,” he said.
“And this is a collective responsibility that we must shoulder because it is the only way we can achieve political stability in our country. The challenges you will face in moving this process forward are huge. In order to expedite peace implementation, you need to pick up where the National Constitutional Amendment Committee (NCAC) has stopped after their mandate. This body has already worked on a number of laws that are critical to the implementation of the Revitalized Peace Agreement. It has reviewed most of petroleum, security and institutional reform laws,” he added.
He further revealed that the ministry of justice “has also done some work on Chapter 5 in the area of Transitional Justice and Accountability. It is also working on the Permanent Constitution Making Process Bill. Further, there are Provisional Orders on Petroleum and Gas Corporation; National Public Health; Cybercrime and Computer Misuse and, Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank that have been assented to which the Ministry of Justice will table before this August House.”
