FILE PHOTO: Members of the transitional national legislature during a sitting in Juba. | Photo: Courtesy.

A lawmaker has criticized the silence of the national legislature over the worsening economic situation in the country.

Joyce Dusman who is representing the Lainya constituency in Central Equatoria State on Monday told the parliament that the citizens are starving as the pound continues to weaken against the dollar.

Yet she said the August house kept quiet over the matter.

“Rt Hon Speaker, my point of information to this house as the representative of people is the Dollar in the market  today has gone to one thousand five hundred pounds,”

“Rt Hon Speaker, people are dying, people are starving and we honorable members in this parliament are here keeping quiet about the issue,” she addressed Assembly Deputy Speaker, Oyet Nathaniel.

MP Dusman suggested that the Bank of South Sudan’s governor, and the Ministers of Finance and Trade be summoned about the inflating dollar-to-pounds exchange rate.

“We need to summon the Minister of Finance,  the Governor of Central Bank, and the Mayor of Juba City” because she said, “This is a crucial issue.”

She believes questioning the officials will generate possible solutions to the economic crisis.

In response, Assembly Deputy Speaker Oyet Nathaniel who chaired the Monday’s session asked the MP to move a motion next week on Wednesday to allow the legislature to summon the relevant officials.

“You can put your point of information into a motion, Wednesday we have a sitting in this August House so that you can table it and then next week, we can summon the relevant ministers,”

The South Sudanese pound has depreciated to a record low at around one-thousand pounds a dollar in the financial market.

But in the Central Bank, one US dollar sells at 938 pounds.

Last week, the Central Bank raised concerns about Forex market volatility and further depreciation of the South Sudanese currency against the dollar.

But the Central Bank said it was concerned about the situation it attributed to South Sudan’s dependence on imports.