First Vice President, Dr. Riek Machar - courtesy

First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar has called for the need of urgent review of the land and local government acts to streamline issues relating to governance structure.

Dr Machar made the remarks on Tuesday while officiating the launch of a per-consultations workshop on reviewing the Local Government Act (2009), the Land Act (2009) and the enactment of a Settlement and Registration Law.

In a Facebook post, the office of the First Vice President said the workshop was organized by the Ministries of Justice and Constitutional Affairs; Land, Housing, and Urban Development and facilitated by the European Union (EU) in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The event also drew participants from the relevant national and local government authorities.

It reported that First Vice President Dr. Machar who is in charge of the governance cluster, noted the significance regulating land usage would have in addressing land ownership and disputes in the country.

Speaking on the state-own TV, SSBC last evening, Dr Machar says land use is important and regulating it can attract investors.

“Land is important for farming and agriculture and pastoralists, even we need to use it for transport.

“Now we are losing investors because we are unable to regulate and operate the land so that an investor can come in less than two days so they can get appropriate land to use.”

On 28th of October, the Council of Ministers revised and passed the National Land Policy with clause specifying that land is owned by the people not the communities in South Sudan.

the draft land policy was developed to establish sustainable framework for allocating and protecting collective and individual land right for all the people of South Sudan.

The policy articulates processes for access and ownership, control administration uses and sustainable management of the land.

According to the Minister of Justices and Constitutional Affair Ruben Madol says the review aims to conform with provisions of the 2018 Peace Agreement.

“We are now being governed by the t,ransitional  constitution of South Sudan 2011 and interestingly at this crucial time  we are about to review that constitution in order to conform with the provisions of the Revitalize Agreement on Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan.

“It crucial that this constitution has to be in place for the transitional period to conclude and we move to more stable constitution regime, he said.

Other officials who attended the workshop include; the Minister of Federal Affairs, Lasuba Wongo; the Deputy Chief Justice, Justice Dr. John Gatwich Lul; the European Union Ambassador to South Sudan, Mr. Timo Olkknonen; and UNMISS Rule and Law Director, Milbert Shin.