The Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Ruben Madol Arol, has presented two constitutional amendment bills approved by the cabinet to the parliament.

The minister presented the amendment bills numbers 8 and 9, (2011) on Monday for further deliberation and approval by the parliament before they are signed into law by the president.

Madol said the amendment bills were submitted to the parliament on November 9 in compliance with the provisions of the 2018 Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan.

Article 1.18, under sub-article (1.18.6), provides for the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs to receive the draft amendments to the TCRSS, 2011 (as amended) and other legislation relevant to the peace agreement prepared by the National Constitutional Amendment Committee, (NCAC).

They are to be presented to the Council of Ministers and the Reconstituted Transitional National Legislative Assembly, within seven (7) days of receiving the amendments from the NCAC.

Madol said the consultation was done by the leadership of the National Legislative Assembly and of the Council of States.

“The purpose of this bill is to amend the transitional constitution of South Sudan 2011 as amended to remedy the changes in the constitutional amendment number six act 2020 that are inconsistent with the provisions of the revitalized agreement,” said Madol.

Article 3 (6) of the amendment bill provides that upon the incorporation of the agreement into the constitution by the Transitional National legislature, the President of the Republic shall sign it into law.

Article 3 (7) of the amendment bill incorporates the provisions of article 8.2 of the revitalized agreement on the resolution of conflict in the Republic of South Sudan, providing that the terms of the agreement shall prevail over the provisions of the constitution where there is a conflict between the provisions of the agreement and the constitution.

Article 102 (2) of the constitution has been repelled in order to correct the contradiction with article 102 (A) (4) regarding the timeline provided for replacement in the event the post of President falls vacant during the transitional period, said Madol.

Article 164 (1) of the constitution is amended by modifying it to incorporate articles 1.16.1, 1.16.2, and 1.16.3 of the revitalised agreement.

The constitution was also amended by repealing Article 203, which provides for national elections to be governed by a transitional constitution in 2011 before coming into force as a permanent constitution, as this is contrary to the provisions of the revitalized agreement, Madol explained.

On the other hand, he said the purpose of amendment bill number nine is to amend articles 155, 156, and 158 of the transitional constitution of the Republic of South Sudan as amended to change the names of the police service to national police service, prison service to correctional service, and fire brigade service to civil defence and amend any related articles.

He quoted, “This bill is drafted in accordance with the provisions of articles 1.9.4.1 and 1.18.7 of the revitalised agreement on the resolution of conflict in the Republic of South Sudan 2018, which gives power to the presidency to initiate constitutional amendment and the transitional national legislature to ratify it.”

More changes                                                     

He said amendment bill number nine has two chapters and even sections. Chapter one is preliminary provisions (sections 1-3), and it provides for title and commencement, the purpose, and authority.

Chapter two is amendments of sections (4-6) and it provides for the amendment of articles of the constitution (A). Article 155 (4) of the constitution is amended to add the word national before the word police service to read as “national police service.”

Article 156.1 sub-article (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8) of the constitution is amended, changing the name of the prison service to the correctional service. C Article 158 sub-article (1, 2, 3,4,5, and 6) of the constitution is amended, changing the name of the fire brigade to civil defence. D. make the necessary changes to Schedules A, B, and C.

The revitalised peace agreement provided for NCAC to review and complete amendments to relevant national security legislation to bring their provisions into conformity with this agreement, including the SPLA Act, 2009, the National Security Service Act, 2014, the Police Service Act, 2009, the Prison Service Act, 2011, the Wildlife Service Act, 2011 and the Fire Brigade Service Act, 2009, within ninety (90) days from the date of signature of this agreement.

“In light of the foregoing, I respectively submit the transitional constitution of the Republic of South Sudan 2011 as amended amendment numbers 8 and 9 bills 2021 to you after its approval by the council of ministers for your deliberations and enactment,” he concluded.

The parliament then formed a committee of 14 members, composed of MPs from the Council of States and the Reconstituted Transitional National Assembly (TNLA), to study the bills and give a report after three days for the members to deliberate on the bills.