John Agany Deng, the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Information, speaks to reporters in Juba on Monday, 16 October 2023 (Radio Tamazuj)

Parliament adjourns sitting over ‘messy venue’

A lawmaker said that South Sudan’s Parliament has postponed its regular sitting scheduled for Monday due to untidy sitting arrangements at the Freedom Hall venue.

A lawmaker said that South Sudan’s Parliament has postponed its regular sitting scheduled for Monday due to untidy sitting arrangements at the Freedom Hall venue.

Freedom Hall is also a public place for other events, including weddings and parties.

Addressing reporters after the clerk called off the sitting, John Agany Deng, the Chairperson of the Specialized Committee on Information, said the assembly was supposed to listen to a joint report of the specialized committee on foreign affairs on the status of statelessness; however, the sitting could not take place.

“This morning, we were supposed to come and discuss some items in the national parliament, but due to some circumstances that we cannot control this time, the assembly has adjourned the sitting to tomorrow at 10 am,” Agany said.

“The reason for adjourning the sitting is the question the assembly is not ready for the business because this place is a multipurpose place and it has been used during the weekend, and when we arrived, we got that the sitting arrangement was not in the proper position so we said the sitting will be adjourned till tomorrow,” he added.

Agany, however, assured the public that the sittings will soon be relocated to the parliament’s main building as the renovation of the main hall is near completion.

“These are issues that we have been talking about that the renovation which is going on in the assembly has affected a lot of our activities including the place of sitting… I hope in the coming months we will have our place to stay and all these will be avoided, and we will have no reasons to adjourn the sitting,” he concluded.