The Eastern Equatoria State legislative assembly authorities have said approximately 30 million South Sudanese Pounds is needed to complete the new assembly hall that will accommodate the 100 lawmakers.
The current assembly hall was constructed in 2005 and accommodates less than 50 members and has become small.
The clerk of the state legislative assembly, Adelio Kau Kawa, told Radio Tamazuj that they recently embarked on constructing a new hall.
“We only just raised the wall and the roofing, so when we have resources, the other hall will be okay,” Kau said. “It will accommodate the other visitors like the executive when there is a closing session. They will all be accommodated, even visitors because it is a bit longer and larger than the present hall.”
He added: “The present hall that we have is small and it cannot accommodate all the executive and the legislators. It may require SSP 30 million because of the roofing and the walling. It will require more money because we want to buy the (iron) sheets and other things like the timbers and then the ceilings and the finishing of the floor.”
The clerk said he was confident that they will secure the funding to complete the structure from the government the state parliament is a vital arm of government.
“We shall knock here and there on government doors because, through the assembly, the voice of the people will be heard because everything that the public wants will be forwarded to the government through the parliament,” he added.
The state legislative assembly speaker, Severino Maira Jamus, confirmed that the current parliament should have 100 members but OPP members have not yet been appointed.
“The number of MPs is 100 but of course, the government that we have now is a political party’s government, not for only one political party so the number reached is 87 but out of this they came from three parties of SPLM (IG), and SPLM-IO and SSOA but OPP have not brought their people,” Speaker Maira explained.
He said the parliamentary seats were shared according to the peace agreement ratio of 55 percent for government, 27 percent for SPLM-IO, 10 percent for SSOA, and 8 percent for OPP.
“They have not been sworn in and we are still waiting. There are some who are sick. The OPP, if they came, will be sworn in,” Maira said.