By Bida Elly David
Transitional national assembly rebukes the director general of traffic police for terming the parliament “illegal and illegitimate to oversee matters of the force.”
Spokesperson of the Assembly, John Agany Deng condemned the director general of traffic police for making outrageous sentiments.
“The national parliament is a legal body that makes a lot of laws in South Sudan, including translating them into reality through the agreement,” Agany said.
Eye Radio, on October 13th, 2023, published an article where the director general of traffic police, Maj. Gen. Kon John, allegedly blasted the national assembly.
The controversial article has since gone viral on social media.
In an interview with No. 1 Citizen Daily Newspaper, Hon. Agany said the remark of the Director General of traffic police is an insult on the Parliament.
“He has no right to insult the national Parliament, which is the third arm of the government,” Agany blasted.
Agany said the law empowers the national government including the Parliament, to play an oversight role in every institution across the country.
The law maker said the “mocked parliament” is the very institution that amended the constitution, paving the way for operation of traffic police directorate.
He termed the police director “a progeny of the August house, as a result of the laws that the parliament passed to regulate their operations.
“If it is not legal, how could the national parliament amend the constitution and integrate the agreement? That general needs to answer this question,” a furious Agany echoed.
“We have passed 28 laws from the time we were reconstituted up to this time; the director must explain before the house, why he termed it illegal and illegitimate,” Agany demanded.
He described Gen. Kon as a military person who has no relation to politics and its affairs.
“We have passed internal treaties; how can this general invalidate the national legislature? As a militant, he has no right to interfere with political affairs,” Agany said.
The assembly spokesperson said the traffic chief won’t escape from the hands of the lawmakers as he will be questioned to present facts about his argument and mockery.
Meanwhile, the genesis of the matter seems to have stemmed from an August motion passed by the Assembly for issuance of permanent logbooks, contrary to the yearly renewed ones.
The parliament also ruled out the directorate of traffic police from the production and issuance of logbooks and driving licenses.
According to the Parliament, the responsibility of production and issuance of logbooks lies with the ministry of transport, not interior ministry.
However, the director general of traffic police, Maj. Gen. Kon John was not comfortable with the decision of the Legislative Assembly.
He became furious and out rightly disagreed with the resolution of the parliamentary on logbooks, relocating the responsibilities to the transport ministry.
“Lawmakers are interfering in traffic police affairs, and they are not technical people, and they don’t know anything about it,” Kon argued, at that time.
He insisted, it is the role of the traffic police to ensure inspection of all cars and issue necessary documents in accordance with what the law says.
“When you bring a car for renewal, we do a lot of things before logbook renewal, and there is money collected by the revenue authority of the country,” he said.
He maintained that parliament was interfering with the work of traffic police.