South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Awan Achiek
The transitional unity government has been asked to come up with strict laws to curb and punish land grabbers.
This was revealed on Monday in a letter addressed to President Salva Kiir Mayardit by the South Sudan Land Alliance (SSULA) – a coalition of 50 civil society organizations.
“This kind of lawless actions by individuals, errant army generals, individual senior government officials and business tycoons who believe they are above the law or they are the law themselves must be stopped,” said Dorothy Drabuga, the Chairperson of SSULA.
She called on President Kiir to ensue land reforms are expedited to help curb the ongoing rampant land grabbing specifically in Central Equatoria State and across the country.
“Expedite the process of land reforms not limited to institutional reforms and passing of the national land policy and review of the land laws, as well as digital land registration as stipulated in chapter four of the Revitalized Peace Agreement 2018,” said Drabuga.
“SSULA appeals to H.E. the President of the Republic of South Sudan to discipline individual generals, individual senior government officials and other individual business tycoons who are illegally involved in land management and grabbing,” she disclosed.
Drabuga called on President Kiir to reconstitute an independent committee comprising of civil society organizations and other stakeholders led by the Ministry of Land and Housing to investigate and conduct land audit in a transparent and accountable manner.
She said that the committee will be tasked to recover land grabbed and return it to the rightful owners in order to build trust and confidence among the civil population.
“SSULA appeals to the top leadership to strengthen the capacity of the land institutions at all levels both financial and human resource to improve on land governance in the country,” said Drabuga.
