The Council of Ministers has directed the Ministry of Labor and Public Service to establish a pension department to ensure the elderly retire from the civil service to give way for youth, the Minister of Information has said.

One of the tasks of the department is to identify those who are above the retirement age, which is currently unclear; and replace them with young employees.

Michael Makuei says many people who have reached retirement age are still working in various sectors, contributing to unemployment among the youth.

He was speaking to the media after the regular meeting of the Council of Ministers at the end of last week.

“The ministry is facing the problem of high number of pensioners who are not paid; others are due for pensioning but they are not retired simply because a functioning system is not in a place,” Makuei stated.

“…those who have reached pensionable age could go for pension so that [they] give chance to the youngest so that they also progress and move forward.”

Mr Makuei said the Ministry of Labor and Public Service has also formed a committee to determine job descriptions for South Sudanese and foreign nationals in private or public sector.

This comes a week after the spokesperson of pensioners, Sebit Kenyi, said more than 1,300 civil servants are waiting for their dues to be paid by the Sudan.

Most of them had retired from the Sudanese civil service since 2011.