The members of the Transitional National Legislative Assembly (RTNLA) have demanded that they be allocated private plots of land by the Central Equatoria State government.
During a recent session presided over by First Deputy Speaker Oyet Nathaniel Pierino, Malek Cook, an SPLM parliamentarian from Unity State, raised the issue of land allocation, emphasizing the historical practice of providing land for lawmakers.
“Land used to be distributed to honorable members of the August House in the previous parliament. I need to inquire what went wrong in between and if we are entitled to land,” he wondered. “I think the honorable members need to be dignified and given land so as not to be involved in dubious land grabbing.”
In response to the parliamentarians’ inquiries, Deputy Speaker Oyet Nathaniel said that since the reconstitution of the TNLA, there had been no information about land for legislators. He urged the leadership of the parliament to investigate the matter further.
“I think land allocation to the honorable members has been a tradition. I do not know whether, by default, the honorable members of the first parliament were given some good treatment and were allocated land somewhere in the capital city, but this treatment now is not there,” he said. “When we were reconstituted, we did not get any information that there was land available for allocation. The circumstances under which the previous parliament got land are not clear to me. This should be studied so that we know how to go about it if at all there is any provision that there is land that can be allocated to the honorable members.”
“One thing that I know is that this is not part of the Emolument Act of the members of parliament and if anything, it will be out of courtesy or administrative consideration but it will not be a right that is enshrined in our Emolument Act,” Deputy Speaker Oyet added.
For her part, Jackeline Benjamin Ladu, a SPLM-IO legislator from Central Equatoria State who is also the chairperson of the Lands and Physical Infrastructure Committee in the TNLA, assured the parliamentarians that she is actively pursuing the matter with Central Equatoria State’s Ministry of Lands and Physical Infrastructure.
“Yesterday we went to the Ministry of Lands and Physical Infrastructure and I gave our names over five months ago to the ministry. They told us that they are going to give us land,” she explained. “I have been following up and even the day before yesterday I visited the ministry. I asked the minister about the issue of land for the MPs and support staff and he told us they are following up and we too should follow up with them.”
“I want to tell the MPs that land is going to be given to us,” Benjamin added.