By Malith Alier, Juba
President Kiir once jokingly said that when “I remove officials they complain but no one complains when I appoint the same officials in to the government.” This was after the time he dissolved the entire government including the Vice President who is now a rebel leader fighting the government he once was a VP.
The president has been using decrees to appoint and remove government officials, even members of parliament since 2005. What is a decree then?
A decree is a command by the president in the context of South Sudan which must be complied with. It is an order or law which is embedded in the Constitution of the Republic of South sudan. There is no single instance where these decrees were not implemented no matter how they were viewed. They were simply implemented without fail.
On this point, there is something interesting about the presidential decrees that we have so far witnessed. They are both mysterious and dogmatic in a sense and the way they’re presented. They remain a mystery because they are not subject to interpretations. Further, the president is not obliged to give reasons for any decree.
Section 101 of the Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South sudan accorded the President enabling power to appoint and remove the appointed government officials as he wishes. Whether he should explain grounds for such removals or appointments is another thing altogether. The sackings/dismissals are often referred to as relieve (relief) of Mr. so and so. This is political correctness at the highest order.
There seems to be developing a decree “blood” in the country. This is so at the many levels of the government. The use of decrees is an extraordinary practice. It has been ingrained in the government and now seems normal.
The state governors are the second after the President then the County Commissioners and the Payam administrators. Even church pastors recently joined the queue of decree holders. What is there to observe in all this is that the degree of implementation of those decrees at various levels of the government diminishes downwardly.
The Juba County Commissioner announced several decrees since ascension to office but most of them are deemed unimplementable from day one. Of the particular interest here is that of helmet for bodaboda or motorcycle riders and their passengers.
The Commissioner decreed that all those who ride motorbikes in Juba County must have helmets for protection on the road. The decree is as good as is on the paper.
The dogmatic presidential decrees, particularly the ones used to sack officials conceal the circumstances of wrongdoing. They leave speculation over the government or the workplace. Perhaps it is only the affected that is fully aware of what transpired between his/her workplace and the president or the appointing authority.
In some instances, the decrees are used as a means to transfer officials from one post to another. The president can remove an undersecretary and reappoint them as minister either in the same ministry or to another ministry. We have also witnessed officials being relieved from the states to appoint in the national government. However, this is one of the controversial parts especially if the official was elected by the people in that state.
The elected governors of Unity and Lakes were relieved and are now in the rebellion. The other two former governors of Jonglei and Northern Bahr el Ghazel were relieved to be reappointed in the national government.
Of course there were instances where the presidential appointment decrees were revoked or altered overnight. A period of twenty hours of appointment was the shortest time in the appointment for some officials. Something must have gone wrong somewhere but nobody needed to make fuss about for same reasons of the aboveboard the decrees are.
Both the presidential decrees may be used to correct an anomaly in the system. In some instances, they’re used to create nonexistent institutions like the Greater Pibor Administrative Area. They have been used to reintegrate militias into the army.
They are sometimes used to appointment members who should have been subject to elections such as members of parliament. So they simply have wide ranging application in the republic.