The economy of creating employment opportunities for South Sudanese nationals
9 min readThe economy of creating employment opportunities for citizens/employing Nationals or protecting the labor markets in the interest of citizens
By David Char Akau, Juba, South Sudan
September 4, 2015 (SSB) — Since the CPA brought South Sudan to existence, its labor markets has been awashed with unmanageable foreign labor from neighboring countries and the so-called investor states/countries, it has the highest rate of citizens’ unemployment. Every time a new investments is set up, it comes with its employees from the country of origin, the labor market now is more messed up; the private sector is staffed with foreigners from countries where those investors are coming from, the NGO sector is also staffed with professionals from other countries either as a requirement by donor projects or by the simple notions that the South Sudanese are not qualified to deliver big better things. Even the South Sudanese government has foreigners working on it in sensitive positions central to its success. All these and others have economic and social consequences on South Sudan and its people and is the main reason for this article as seen in the ensuing sections of this discourse;
Citizens’ employment improves the image of the state and legitimacy of government
Jobs creation is fundamentally a priority of governments world over, it is properly articulated on elections manifestoes and times, governments make sure this promise of employment creation is followed through from the first days in office to the end of the terms, jobs creation is done by government through policies and laws that are aimed at stimulating the economy to creating jobs, strategies such as taxation policies, investment policies, migration and border control policies, proper education and vocational training policies among others have no other reasons than to make the governments look strong, legitimate and be seen performing in the eyes of its citizens that delegated the power to it.
Job creation is a central issue among others that lead to electing back or bringing in new parties to office because it is the same laborers who are the citizens and they are ones that are vested with voting rights and that is why some parties in other parts of the world call themselves ‘Labor parties’ because by associating with the workforce and working to maintain the spirit of creating employments, they grantee being elected or reelected in the next elections.
It is employments or jobs creations which encourages citizens to remain settled in their home countries, come back from exile after wars, seek education at peace times, abandon or lessen or even increase crimes simply because they find jobs, they see legitimacy in their country and governments and South Sudan is not an exception in this as seen immediately after the signing of the CPA and independence from the Sudan, they had hoped to come and find employments and meaning of being South Sudanese at home than being in foreign lands.
To me the recent South Sudan NGO bill is one of the needed bills but is not enough to stimulate employments for the citizens, there must be an investment law that seeks to exclusively create jobs for South Sudanese, there must be a South Sudan Labor bill to regulate the labor in South Sudan in the interest of citizens, there must be a proper education system that strengthens the capacities of South Sudanese to deliver the jobs that are being created for them, there must South Sundanization of NGOs by law empathizing employing South Sudanese first then foreigners when it is extremely mandatory.
Employing citizens creates household incomes and reduce poverty and create peaceful citizens.
Countries plagued with unemployment have the highest poverty prevalence, the level of destitution is high, families are not able to meet their basic needs( cannot educate children, have no foods, poor housing and the list is long), crimes and unrests are common in those countries and South Sudan already delayed by economic marginalization by the then Sudan, property and traditional wealth destroyed by the wars that have been fought on this soil is not an exceptions, the level of poverty is already high among the people even those who are supposed to be driving the local economies/informal sectors have already been overshadowed by large size of foreign labor flooding the country coupled with lieu of policies governing that influx of foreign cheap labor, this has caused the ‘militarization of the population’,
no one seems to realize this ‘militarization of the South Sudanese population’ but it is coming from lack of jobs, people easily find jobs in the SPLA, in the SSNPS, the wild life or any other created force not because they like it but because it is the only open economy to them because the private sector, the Ngo World, booming Hotel industry and construction industries have been taken over by foreign labor, and you cannot blame the foreigners simply because the government has not regulated them and also every neighboring country struggling with unemployment, they are trying to get rid of the cheap labor by sending in those laborers to South Sudan and South Sudan with no plans on how to deal with and weak diplomatic buttress has no way of pushing back these peoples and dealing with the diplomatic raw that may ensue as seen on the recent cycler apportioning positions in businesses to South Sudanese.
The recommendations here is to be strong diplomatically knowing that cheap labor and none deployment of citizens are not sustainable and are not a diplomatic trade off, diplomacy is reciprocal on same terms and on equal issues, no south Sudanese is employed there and I do not think GRSS is vouching to get any in return for their citizens there, the notion that there are south Sudanese in those countries is a none-issue;
They take foreign Currency to those economies (school fees, rents, medical and also increased consumptions) so those countries cannot allow them leave in exchange for jobs in South Sudan, this is seen in the boom that the Ugandan economy witnessed as South Sudan emerged with its oil and hard currency that comes with oil, those countries are working hard to create employment for their people and South Sudan must also do the same for her citizens to reduce poverty, engage its citizens, reduce destitution and also reduce crimes, reduce militarization of the population- the feeling of earing livelihood through the gun simply that is what is available must be addressed.
Jobs are a monetary tool because it is from this that the government raises taxes and return excess cash into the treasury.
Other than oil and other natural resources that South Sudan seems to be endowed, satisfied with and obsessed with taxations are a source of incomes for the government, governments around the world depends on taxes from it wide tax base – the people pay as income taxes. large working population is one of the open channels and an asset through which governments raise revenues, this has been under estimated by South Sudanese government, no proper tax system is in place and the government has also not engaged in planning for policies that generate employment for the people, the education system has not sought to make citizens that create jobs or be employed.
This is one of the reasons why the government of South Sudan was not able to sustain itself when the oil was shut down in 2012 and during the war and drop in the oil prices that has paralyzed the oil sector and the economy that it supports because revenues from other sources including taxations of all kinds including income taxes coming from working South Sudanese were few, and even much as the few South Sudanese pay their 10%, the largest number of foreign work force was not paying anything including the stipulated work permit fees and yet the economy was and is dying, what does the government gains from these foreign work force, just non beneficial flattering praises from the countries where the hail?
I’m made to understand that one risks a jail sentence in Ethiopia when they do not pay 100$ per month and on top works of all kinds are not permitted to aliens………then what does South Sudan gains from such a country in returns for its large number of citizens working in South Sudan.
Employment is the basis for citizens to develop themselves and their countries
Every time something good is built in South Sudan, it belongs to a foreigner, land in Juba is all leased to foreigners and jobs including the least of all kinds such as cleaning and bar attendance not mentions all kinds of businesses including accessing contracts that are supposed to go to nationals are taken over by foreigners, basically ‘the country called South Sudan’ is in the hands of foreigners while south Sudanese are left jobless, poor and suffering,
All these come as a result of having no money to develop anything one owns or be able to deliver what is needed by those contracts – simply put, the population is not empowered, to avoid these, South Sudanese needs to be allowed to own their country to develop it, countries are built by their citizens not aliens because the aliens look at repatriating the profits to where they hailed from, they are not interested or prohibited by some laws such a land laws in building or owning anything for a long times, if you may agree with, most of the houses small or big put up on leased lands are of poor standards because they are built to last for the number of years that the lease agreement stipulates, none of them is interested in putting up what will last longer and South Sudanese have no bargaining power to really refuse what is being put up on their plots because the system is not there to grantee this.
The buildings have also been built by foreign work force, imagine South Sudanese being discriminated not to be part take in any of the construction which is employment actually – they are regarded as ‘lazy’, ‘technically poor’, ‘have many demands’, all these come because their government has not put in place employment and migration rules to protect them from foreign exploiters.
In conclusions, policies and proper diplomatic strategies by the governments will save South Sudan from exploitation, being deprived of taxable incomes, poor populace, crimes and dependency on oils, the Government must strive to create jobs for its people to develop themselves, reduce poverty, destitution, increase legitimacy, and reduce militarization of the population and unrests coming from the feeling of exclusions which the government does not do but done by the economy hijacked by foreign labor force.
Thanks
David Char Akau is a South Sudanese International Human Rights lawyer in Juba, South Sudan, and can be reached at his email: davidayuen1@yahoo.com
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