Kiir dismisses legal aide over speculated disagreements
May 8, 2013 (JUBA) – South Sudan’s president, Salva Kiir Mayardit, has dismissed his legal aide over speculated disagreements as the office tries to handle a number of legal challenges and fix its administration which trying to recover from a corruption scandal.
Perpetuar was serving as a first class judge in the judiciary organ before she was reappointed and transferred to the president’s office to assist him on legal matters and had been serving the office for the last few years.
The president also dismissed her from her original job as first class judge in the judiciary, stripping her of the two posts.
The decree, like Kiir’s many other presidential decrees, did not explain the reason behind the sudden dismissal of one of the most experienced legal professionals in the country.
An official in the president’s office however told the Sudan Tribune that the dismissal could have come as a result of disagreements over how to handle the case of the president’s senior office administrators accused of corruption.
Three officials, who include Kiir’s chief administrator and his executive director were suspended and are being investigated after hundreds of thousands of cash in US dollars and South Sudanese pounds disappeared from president’s office.
The official, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal, further said that those dismissed and the presidential advisor for legal affairs, Telar Ring Deng, have had disagreements in the office over how to handle some of the legal issues, including the transfer of responsibility to the new acting office administrators.
It has also been speculated that the two legal aides have been at odds with each other over interpretations of certain legal actions taken by the president, including the drafting and selection of his presidential decrees and orders.
Kiir last week, while opening the parliamentary session after recess, warned that he would dismiss government official who would continue to criticise South Sudan’s system of government.
The president recently dismissed the deputy minister of foreign affairs, Professor Elias Nyamlell Wako, for reported remarks in a meeting, saying that the government was corrupt from top to bottom.
“We are in a situation of uncertainty in the office,” the official said, referring to the developments in the highest office of the land.
(ST)