By Bida Elly David
South Sudan Minister of Defense and Veteran Affairs justifies involvement of soldiers in crimes across the country, linking the acts to paltry salary.
Hon. Chol Thon Balok notes lack of implementation of the national budget to cater for welfare of soldiers and the economic crisis, as the drivers of insecurity.
Minister was responding to queries by members of parliament, where he was summoned with other colleague ministers on issues pertaining to the persistent insecurity across the country.
In his submission, the minister reiterated that petty salaries and the lack of implementation of the national budget for civil and military welfare are factors hampering the control of guns and the security of the country.
He urged the parliamentarians to question themselves on why budgets have been approved but implementation is lacking, adding that the army has not wholly contributed to any security downfall.
The minister noted that the 40% of the national budget claimed to have been allotted for the ministry of defense has remained on a piece of paper, suffering implementation by the concerned authority.
“We are not getting 40% of the budget as said. The national budget you are making here as legislators is not being implemented, even though you are suffering. It is being brought to the parliament,” he revealed.
Hon. Balok underscored that any misconduct exercised by any soldier under the national army is constituted due to low salaries and poor welfare.
“Soldiers are being poorly paid. They don’t get enough salary, and what they get is very little. It is not meeting the market forces since the rate of the dollar is very high,” he said.
However, Balok alluded that it is hard to command military officers deprived of proper and timely remuneration to support their families, saying that they would be brutal.
“So, I can say that soldiers have resorted to other things, and they can be indiscipline if you don’t take care of their welfare. You cannot command them if you don’t take care of their welfare,” he added.
The defense minister argued that the on-going insecurity is not because his ministry has failed to control the circulation of guns in the hands of civilian but due to the on-going economic crisis that leaves soldiers with no option, other than using guns to survive.
He added that the army has not distributed guns of any type to any civilian to cause insecurity across the country, particularly among the cattle herders, who became elements that positioned the SSPDF to be suspected of atrocities.
“The guns that you see with the population around them are not in our stores. Guns are everywhere in Juba and in the countryside. Farmers and officials own guns, and where they get their guns, we don’t know,” he said.