By Yiep Joseph
Former Commissioner of Lainya County in Central Equatoria State, Emmanuel Khamis, has urged the government to retire older officials to pave the way for fresh graduates.
“Senior citizens” –those of retirement age, generally from 65 years above are continuing to hold office, even though the official retirement age in South Sudan is 65.
While the Transitional Constitution 2011 (Section 84(1)) mandates retirement at 65 for civil servants, and the Pension Fund Act, 2012 (sections 6(1), 8(d), & 9(1)) provides for a pension fund, many officials above this age remain in their positions.
This situation persists even though South Sudan launched its first pension payments in 2019, raising questions about the availability of funds and the enforcement of retirement regulations.
In an inclusive interview, Khamis expressed concern about the ongoing issue of graduates entering the job market each year without finding employment, while many offices are still occupied by individuals who are at retirement age.
He noted that some positions are held by people who should have already retired, which prevents fresh graduates from stepping in and making a positive impact.
“When it comes to the policy of retirement, you have people who have been working in this government since they became grandparents, and they are still working. Why do you keep these people there!” he exclaimed.
“Since there is no retirement, grand grandparents are still sitting in offices, and so many youth are graduating. Where will they get employment?” he added.
The former commissioner called on the government and the institutions concerned to develop proper policies that can retire those pensioners in the offices.
“We need to have a clear policy to retire so that we promote and recruit young men and women,” he said.
“so this old official needs to retire so that an opportunity can be created so that the young man can get a job and exercise their skills,” he added.
He appealed to the senior citizens to give way to the young generation to inject fresh efforts into government offices.
“We should not die in office; we need to be able to give an opportunity to other generations,” he said.
In 2024, the former chairperson of the Finance Committee in the National Parliament said the government was planning to retire about 1,500 civil servants at the age of 65 years.
Changkuoth Bichiock Reth stated that the decision was taken following a meeting with the ministers of presidential affairs, public service, finance, and the general manager of South Sudan Pension.
The discussion centered on how elderly civil servants can be sent home for retirement to give space for the recruitment of young graduates.
Bichock said the government organs have drafted a resolution to allocate about 15 billion South Sudanese pounds to retire the government workers.
“After engaging with the South Sudan pension funds, we found out that they have almost arrears of 26 billion pounds that were not paid to them,” Hon. Changkuoth said.