South Sudan to amend critical laws to conform to peace deal

By Tapeng Michael Ohure

South Sudan’s Revitalized Transitional National Legislative Assembly (R-TNLA) has recommended amendment of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA, Act 2009) and Political Parties Act 2011.

This came after the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Reuben Madol Arol tabled Thursday two bills before the R-TNLA in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.

John Agany, the Chairperson of the Information, Communication and Postal Services Committee in R-TNLA, said the SPLA Act upon amendment will see the national army’s name officially change to South Sudan People’s Defense Force (SSPDF).

“These amendments will actually render the SPLA Act to be in conformity with the constitution, and for that matter it will comply with its implementation, and it is done in accordance with the revitalized peace agreement which is calling for the full implementation of the agreement,” said Agany.

He disclosed that once the bills are passed they will later on be sent to President Salva Kiir to assent to them.

“The second sitting was on the Parties Amendment Act, and it has gone through the second reading and now third reading stage,” said Agany.

The SPLA founded by the late John Garang Demabior fought decades of war with successive Sudanese regimes in Khartoum, paving way for the signing of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in Kenya.

The CPA later on paved way for the independence of South Sudan from Sudan in 2011.