South Sudanese public servants in the North to return as independence approaches
May 27, 2011 (JUBA) – South Sudanese public servants, currently working in the 15 states of North Sudan, will be returned to the soon-to-be independent region as part of South Sudan’s independence and the formal separation between the two regions.
South Sudan, which will formally become independent on July 9, voted overwhelmingly for secession from the rest of Sudan in a self-determination referendum conducted in January this year. The plebiscite was held in accordance with the 2005 North-South peace deal which ended 21 years of civil war.
Tens of thousands of Southern Sudanese are currently employed in the public service in North Sudan and are expected to return to South Sudan before and after July 9. These include all those working in the government in the executive, legislative, civil service and police forces of various categories.
South Sudan’s leadership had proposed that Northern and Southern Sudanese citizens would be able to chose which country they wished to reside and work in after July 9 but the proposal has been rejected by the Khartoum government.
In a meeting of the Southern Sudan 2011 Taskforce chaired by the region’s Vice President Riek Machar, on Thursday, Machar stressed the urgent need to step up the process of returning the South Sudanese employees from the North and making necessary preparations ahead of independence. He said this will also include assisted return of professional South Sudanese in the Diaspora who are willing to return to South Sudan.
Also in the meeting, a policy framework for the absorption of returning public servants was put forward by the minister of Labour and Public Service, Awut Deng Acuil. Another memo containing preliminary data of the current number, and some details of, South Sudanese public servants in the North was presented to the meeting by the State Minister in the Presidency in Khartoum, Wek Mamer Kuol.
In the policy framework, all returning public servants will be screened and will need to provide evidence of their previous employment record. This will be cross-checked against documentation provided by the northern authorities.
Priority will be given to filling vacancies and creating capacity at boma, payam and county level. In order to attract qualified personnel to work at the lower levels of government or in the rural areas, salary levels will be restructured. Those working at boma, payam, county or state levels will receive the same salary as those working for South Sudan government in Juba. At present those at state and lower levels have received lower salaries, discouraging many from working in rural areas.
The policy framework, which is expected to be implemented from July, says:
“In addition, a hardship allowance or weighting will be paid for postings at Boma, Payam and County levels. This hardship allowance will not be paid to those working in Juba or state capitals. Also relocation allowance will be paid to those who are posted to Boma, Payam and County level.”
Because the transitional constitution of South Sudan rules out Arabic as co-official language in the new state, necessary retraining programs. English will become the official language of South Sudan in July. Training in English will be provided with the support of international development partners.
As part of the 2005 peace deal English was made an official language of Sudan along with Arabic.
The Government of South Sudan (GoSS) ministry of Labour and Public Service will have the overall responsible body for the allocation of personnel to different sectors, agencies and levels, in consultation with a broader returns committee consisting of relevant institutions that has yet to be established.
Following an assessment of vacancies and staffing requirements at the GoSS, state, county, payam and boma levels, the GoSS Committee on Returns will make recommendations as to the revised ceiling for the civil service wages.
Those who have professional qualifications and experience such as teachers, lecturers, lawyers, doctors and health workers will generally be absorbed into their relevant professional discipline and the associated line ministry or department at local government level. However, the policy framework says the GoSS retains the right to recruit professionals into alternative sectors and agencies, should the need arise.
Once a decision has been made by the Committee, lists of all those to be redeployed will be published and provided to each institution.
Public servants returning from the North who are already receiving their pension from the National Pension Fund (NPF) will continue to receive their pension from the NPF. Those who are retiring in the South will be paid by the GoSS.
In the policy framework, South Sudanese in the Diaspora are likewise encouraged to return home and to contribute to the building of the new nation of South Sudan. They are also strongly encouraged to relocate to the state level and in particular to rural areas to support the rural transformation of the new country and to avoid overcrowding of the capital city, Juba.
(ST)
George Bol
South Sudanese public servants in the North to return as independence approaches
My advise to those who wish to life in the North is very simple and straight forward. They must urgently come to the South before July 9th. Anybody who wish to stay in the North is not part of our parcel. Warning!
Niko
South Sudanese public servants in the North to return as independence approaches
take every Southerner from the North. They’re a blight
mohammed ali
South Sudanese public servants in the North to return as independence approaches
Well it is sad! But it is one of threalities of life.
.
It is rediculous that the SPLA ask for dual citizentship while claiming that southerners were being treated as 2nd class citizents
Kon Ajith Deng
South Sudanese public servants in the North to return as independence approaches
My advise to the GOSS is that,all the citezens and police coming from the North are qualifers,let us give them chances to help the South Sudanese,we tired from the people coming from the east africa,they are laking capacities,to rurn the simple work in the South,six years without any achievements in our instutions,how could we keep them for nothing?
Achiek Alier Jr
South Sudanese public servants in the North to return as independence approaches
Mohammed Ali,
SPLM did not asked for dual citizenship, it is only for those southerners who were born in the North as well as those Northerners who were born and brought up in the South.
But for those of us who were born in the South like myself, there is no point of claiming dual citizenship otherwise the concept of a second class citizen was a hoax which is not.
Second class citizen in my understanding mean the concentration of services in one single place which is the center and Khartoum in particular and the monopoly of power by a single entity since independent.
Marco A. Wek
South Sudanese public servants in the North to return as independence approaches
Mohamed Ali do not worry, no southerner would like to stay in the north which is going to be dried up soon once the south is gone with it’s oil believe it or not. It is the Northerners who will be claiming their grandmothers to be from southern tribes and would want southern citizenship instead.
The main reason Southerners were going to the north was due to the fact that north was stealing riches from all conners of Sudan to the north and in which case forced people from those neglected part of the old Sudan to go to the north for job, schooling and medical opportunities, however, since south will enjoy it’s oil and jobs opportunities as well as educational opportunities, they will not bother to go to desert invested city of Khartoum anymore. Official language will be English in the south which means no one will be interests to learn in Arabic schools anymore.
mohammed ali
South Sudanese public servants in the North to return as independence approaches
Maco, Aciet,
In principal , I am against people living in the north or south being called according to their native origin.This racism!
Unfortunately , the CPA enforced this ratial and ethinic division.This was compounded by the vic-president claim that southeres are treated as 2nd class citizents.
The GOSS did ask for dual citezentship and Pagan was talking about this publicly.This confirmed in the article:
((South Sudan’s leadership had proposed that Northern and Southern Sudanese citizens would be able to chose which country they wished to reside and work in after July 9 but the proposal has been rejected by the Khartoum government.))
There are thousands of southerners, who donnot want to go to the south and southands are still coming and they are most welcome!
Marco, I would love if you could tell me of a single item we are stealing from the South…just one single item.Before oil production the south was not contributing with a sigle penny to the national budget.
I hope you all the best in your new state, but am afraid that hundreds will continue their education in the jalabba institutions and many will continue to live happey in the north!
Adam
South Sudanese public servants in the North to return as independence approaches
Well, it is going to be a nightmare. Nothing has been done to absorb the returnees. Full Stop.
I expect social and civic chaos. It is not jobs alone – it has to do with schooling, housing, adjustment and above all security. SPLM/A Corruption will consume the few – very few vacancies. Many, in fact most returnees, if not all will be left with nothing and provided with all that make death a very welcome option. The big gulf between life style the returnees used to and the new life in the SOUTH will be huge. Many problems will arise and multiply to new series of unsolvable dilemma. Unfortunately, our economy in the South has no projects or infrastructure. We have no development or even a hope for that. There is only tyranny and tribalism. There is killing and burning. There is looting and gangs.
There will be a lot of unemployed persons. Sufferings will be unbearable. Thanks to SPLM who was perfect in utilizing the oil revenues. Thanks for the development projects and welfare infrastructure.
A nightmare! Let us get ready for real unrest and poverty born troubles. Those who will return are dreaming of ADEN, but they will face SPLM HELL.
Who is to be blamed for this?
SPLM/A have to go. Right now!
SSRA and opposition political parties, if we have, should concentrate efforts in taking major cities and plot a coupe very soon, right away or else!.
It is also better to be wise and solve all post-referendum issues with the North before JULY.But who will do that? Well Abyei Malitia will surely do that.
We’re in real trouble. Emotions are not enough and will not solve the problems we’re about to witness.
Are we counting on oil revenues and foreign humanitarian assistance? It won’t work. It just won’t.
Those returnees should know that they are going to suffer or even die in the South, especially with the current incompetence and corruption of the so called GoSS.
I want to hear a word from Mr. Pagan in this regard. He was just good in creating hatred with the North together with his colleagues or the so call communist Garang or Rebecca sons.
The West will enjoy broadcasting our failure and skeletons looking for a single grain.
Down with SPLM/A
Adam Milawaki,
Juba, South Sudan
Sudani Logik
South Sudanese public servants in the North to return as independence approaches
Mohammed Ali
When is a seemingly educated doctor from the UK like you going to admit the institutional discrimination and marginalization of non-Arabized/ non-Muslims for decades in the old Sudan?
As for your bulls*** claim that the south didn’t contribute nothing to the National economy:
* Income tax of all southerners is a contribution to the national budget, is it not?
* The agricultural projects of northern Upper Nile state
* The Teak and fruit plantations of Equatorian states (70s & 80s)
* Revenue generated from goods sold in SAF occupied southern cities during the war
* Cheap labour of southerners as domestic servants as well laborers is a boost to the national budget (as most of those southerners spent their salaries on various services & goods in North Sudan)
The list is long ya Mohammed, and don’t forget that areas like Blue Nile and Southern Kurdofan contributed to the national economy but sided with the South for most of the civil war. The extent of SAF and Khartoum’s government’s atrocities against dissenters is well documented and known to most Sudanese politicians and intellectuals.
We also know that many citizens from North Sudan have also suffered under various Khartoum regimes for non conformity, most of Sudan’s wealth was concentrated around the Khartoum triangle but luckily many of them did not see first hand, the savageness of WAR.
I wish that educated northerners like you could just admit the obvious, then maybe the rest will follow but as long your kind refuses to accept the faults of the old Sudan purely out of blind loyalty, there is no hope of future reconciliation and brotherly relations between the two parts of Sudan.
“Southerners treated as 2nd class citizens” is just a figure of speech ya Mohammed, it means southerners and other African Sudanese were looked down upon and discriminated against by the Arabized section of Sudanese society using tools such as the Media (specially TV), Education System, Civil Institutions among other tools. How many African Sudanese actors appeared on Sudan TV or how many African Sudanese players can you name from the national football team?
Don’t just be defensive, analyze, research and understand. The emotions you see displayed on this website is not out of hatred for northerners but bitterness towards their elite manifesting itself in some forms of rhetorical hate.
Sudani Logik
South Sudanese public servants in the North to return as independence approaches
Adam, Dakin, Supporter of Naath Cause, Mr Truthteller, Land of Cush and Niko. Who are you fooling?
You are a bunch of agents, your blah blah blah nonsense is meaningless to most.
Loud bark and no bite, PUSSYCATS!
Internet warriors, LOL
mohammed ali
South Sudanese public servants in the North to return as independence approaches
Logic,
The jalabbi in southerners shoes!
The jalabbi in disguise!
The pathological liar!
I thought that your consecutive lies , you would at least come with something credible.
I will ignore your filthy language and face you with facts
1- Income tax comes from salaries,but from where do you get this salary?!Again salary is not ” resources” to be looted.
2- What agriculture projects you are talking about? From my heart I wish that there were projects in these areas which would contribute to the national budget.There are few people who grow sorghum ( Dhora) and this hardly reaches the market and during the war there nobody growing anything in these ares.
3- Yes there is alot of teak and mahogani in the south , but there is no such industry to exploit this wealth, only few civil servants bring with them wood for their own use.No such industry neither in the north nor in the south.
4-Food taxis is only 10% on importedfood and there is no much imported food which will go the south.Again this not a resources to looted, the south should be exporting food..my dear!
5- Southerners do not work as domestic servants in the north, there are teachers, university professor, doctor, police and in the construction and building industry , where they dominate any other tribe. These are people living in the north and they are southerners but not the south!They are very highly paid, because they contract themselves.
6- At the end of the day the government expdenture in the south is much more than the revenues from the South.
All Sudanese are Africans and you cannot set any divison between us. All educated if not the vast of southerners are educated by the GOS , up to the highest of education like Lam Akol, RiakMachar, Francis Deng, Moses Machar, Deng Alour to name a few. Mawalana Abel Alier was send to have his master degree in law in the 60th from Yale univercity!
Mr. Richard Hassan , one of the eminnet orthopedic surgons is a graduate from Khartoum and was send to have his FRCS by the government.
Footballars ! do you want us to select the national according to the ethenic and the geographic lines? This rediculous.Do you Know somebody by the name Sabit Dodu, he was the best goal keeper in Africa and the best in the history of Sudan. Nobody asked him what is your ethenic origion , but to this day every one love him since the late 50- 60th. The rubbish. Itis threhtoric of the communist and leftist jalabba who try to be appealing to southerners , because they are politically finished. Just like Yasir Arman and Waleed Hamid who was arrested at Khartoum airport smuggling to $ 200,000 after the elections which he was figting for the “marginalized” people with the looted money southerners!
Am not defensives , am just trying to teach to truthful!