Deputy Interior Minister Marial Gumke. (-)

The Ministry of Interior has suggested the formation of an independent commission to recruit judges to ensure their competence, during a consultative meeting with the Judicial Reform Committee on Saturday.

According to the Deputy Interior Minister, Marial Gumke, the meeting discussed formation of Judges Commission which he said is important, especially as the country is set to hold its first general elections.

Mr. Gumke said it was deemed necessary for South Sudan to have courts that are capable to deliver verdicts acceptable to conflicting parties, especially in the case of post-election dispute.

“We have discussed a number of agenda. One is recruitment of Judges. There should be a Judges Commission and it should be the only body to recruit Judges,” he said.

“It is very important because it is looking at courts that are competent to pass certain judgments including if there are any election disputes, there must be a competent court that will put the judgment that is acceptable to all parties that are participating in the election”.

“We also talked about the reforms in County and State courts as per the agreement,” he said, adding that such reform should be undertaken once the federal system of governance is in place.

The deputy minister said the upcoming elections will give the country an opportunity to see the existing gaps in its judicial system.

Mr Gumke stressed that a lack of proper judicial system ahead of the 2024 elections will affect the security sector in the country.

“This election will give us an opportunity to see the gaps that exist already within our judicial system, and this will give us a chance to address them and to make even the next election better,” he said.

“If at all there are challenges that we will be faced with and if we do not have a proper functioning judiciary, off course it will affect the security sector.”

“Because if there are a number of cases that are not addressed, it will become difficult even for the security to do their job.”

For his part, the Chairperson of the Judicial Reform Committee, Justice James Ogoola said the committee will include the views of the Interior Ministry in its report.

“They were very useful views that they gave us and opinions on how to reform the police, and as much as it works with the judiciary, prisons and the other agencies of the ministry,” he said.

“So that took a lot of our time, and we are thankful to the ministry, and we are going to be including many of those decisions in our report, our report should be out not to far from now”.