By Taban Henry
The Councilors of Juba County Legislative Council in Central Equatoria State has on Thursday taken their oath of allegiance following directives from the Governor of Central Equatoria State Emmanuel Adil Anthony ordering his county commissioners to swear in their councilors.
This followed the decree from the governor of Central Equatoria State Emmanuel Adil Anthony ordering the County Commissioners to immediately swear in its county councilors before the end of 26th of August 2022 prompting Commissioner of Juba County to swear in his County Councilors.
Speaking during the swearing, the Juba County commissioner Eng. Charles Joseph Wani urged the councilors to formulate bylaws guided by the Local Government Act 2009.
“Within the Local Government Act there are articles that provide you to come out with the bylaws that can govern your locality so that is your work,” he told the councilors yesterday.
The commissioner noted that the councilors are not going to work as a separate body saying the legislative council is a supervisor to the executive but not the enemy of the executive; however they are the regulators of the executive.
“You are required to work within the frame work of the bylaws that you have formulated, I am sure that the executive body is going to cooperate with the councils. When I was appointed last year and sworn in, in April, during that time we encountered a lot of challenges like what you are also going to face,” he said.
“In Juba County, the challenges that we got was the mobility by that time but the executive in your absence we went far and shall continue to go far so the county was able to look into the issues of transportation for the County Commissioner, Executive Director and the other directors in the County,” he added.
Joseph stated that when they were appointed there were no chairs of which they were hosted at one of our neighbor that’s the city council.
He said the county was empty and they worked tirelessly to see that the county headquarter has some chairs and offices that can at least accommodate some other directorates adding it’s not yet enough.
“We do not come here to sleep, continue doing our duties if you have heard with all the challenges we are able to fight the issues of cattle. You can see we at the executive with nothing were able to handle, that means with your presence we shall go extra mile that means your presence as councilors is very important,” he hinted.
The Juba County Commissioner stated that though they didn’t have a clear source of revenue but they were able to reduce issues of land grabbing within Juba County in collaboration with the State government as well as the national government which tapped in its efforts.
Joseph underlined that those who are still practicing land grabbing they count them now as criminals who have no ground in Juba County and they will deal with them one by one not until they eradicate the issue of land grabbing.
He disclosed that Juba County is a complete set of government that have a set of judges, security organs, the executive and have the councilors now.
“Juba County is an entity which has right to sue and to be sued that means it is independent so your formulation of laws will go according to what you have seen that can help your communities,” the commissioner emphasized.
Joseph further directed the county councilors to begin their work by tackling the issues of education saying Juba County as the host of the national capital should be the lead when it comes to education in the Country.
Meanwhile Ambrose Lomin, the Deputy Chair for Higher Education Science and Technology in the Revitalized Transitional National Legislative Assembly called on the councilors to cooperate together with the commissioner in order to carry out the activities of the county and as well as handling the challenges facing Juba County adding that despite coming from different political background they should rather work as one people of Juba County.
“You came as councilors and the agreement needs people to work together but not calling yourself differently according to your different political affiliation that somebody could on the head of the other, today you’re the councilors of Juba County, I therefore want you to work hand in hand with the administration of Juba County, with the people of Juba County,” he said.
Meanwhile David Morbe, the representative of Juba County Councilors called on his fellow councilors to cooperate with the commissioner in order to handle the challenges facing the county despite coming from different political backgrounds but rather work as the people of Juba County.
“We shall debate on things that are not going on well like the issue of insecurity which has become a threat in the county. Most people are now staying in the town because of insecurity and now leaving our areas to be occupied by the cattle,” he said.
“We need to handle such issues and those things that we cannot handle at the county level will be forwarded to the State or national government,” Morbe added.