South Sudan parliament warns will act on ministers who dishonor summons

By Simon Deng

South Sudan’s parliament will take stringent measures against ministers who dishonor summons to appear before the house, Paul Yoane Bonju, the designated chairperson of the Information Committee of the house, said.

According to Bonju, several ministers summoned by the legislative assembly including that for Humanitarian Affairs, Health, Finance, Environment and Water Resources to respond to issues of flooding in the country have refused to appear before the house.

“I believe maybe in future or in short term some of these ministers if they are going to continue dragging their feet evading to appear after parliamentary summon, I sure one day that is going to run into article or regulations 83 which talks about impeachment,” Bonju said in an interview.

“We always operate within the laws, and regulations 85 states that if a minister is summoned three times and fails to appear before the August House, it is referred to as a contempt to the house and then the house will take necessary measures,” he said.

Bonju said only Manasseh Lomole Waya, the chairperson for Relief and Rehabilitation Commission has responded to the summon of the house in line with the floods.

“The mood of members of the parliament, they want to see ministers and want to hear from the ministers but the ministers didn’t appear,” he said.