South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Simon Deng
The undersecretary for the Ministry of Roads and Bridges Louis Kuot, said that the lack of governance regarding land and the absence of a legal framework have adversely affected the distribution and registration of land for the citizens of South Sudan.
“We have good policies, but we face the issue of governance, particularly regarding land. Additionally, we have some issues with the legal frameworks related to land; the regulatory legal frameworks are not progressive,” said Kout on Friday at Afex Hotel during the closing of the two-day workshop on land, environment, and disaster risk.
“The study found that the laws of South Sudan do not prevent women from owning land, but the issues that hinder women from accessing land include secure land access, ignorance, and lack of resources,” he said.
“We are working on another project called the Green Resilient and Inclusive Cities Programme. The majority of people live in cities, and land allocation in the new cities is not inclusive,” he added.
Hon Permena Awerial Aluong, the first deputy speaker of the Transitional National Legislative Assembly, stated that the government is working to ensure that issues of land governance are resolved without hindrance.
“You cannot work when there is no problem. We have a problem, and we are going to solve it. There have been policies in place for 14 years and for 10 years, yet this country has no land policies,” he said.
Ambrose Lomin, the chairperson of the Committee on Land and Physical Infrastructure in the Transitional National Legislative Assembly, mentioned that the government is working on the land policy to help regulate land issues.
“There is always a pullback on land policy, but nobody is putting the land policy out. The land must be regulated by the government; it is the government’s responsibility to regulate, not to select or pick anyone to issue the land,” said Lomin.
Lomin revealed that other areas in Juba city lack even parks, and there are no football playgrounds, adding that people find it difficult to celebrate public events without an open ground.
“There is another issue: Juba, as the capital city of the Republic of South Sudan, has no planning. Even though it was planned, I think some people just want to take the land,” said Lomin.
