Acting speaker for Torit State Legislative Assembly Dominic Otwari on Wednesday said little and delayed salary of civil servants has left many citizens live below poverty level.
According to him, the current salary scale is too low to match the market price.
MP Otwari calls on humanitarian agencies and government institutions to support the local population with aids and vocational skills.
‘The salaries of civil servants are very low, and not coming on time as such it creates high poverty all over the Country, time will come when our Government is going to raise salaries according to the rate of American Dollars and other international currencies and transfer of salaries will be timely, the kind of wages we have has left our citizens to live below poverty and as such your support will bring resilient to lives of people of Torit state I think UNDP this is what you are supposed to do to support the local population to earn a living because the salaries do delay 6, to 4 months which will not even be enough to sustain a family’, he explains
Otwari encourages South Sudanese to engage in agro-business and farming activities so as to produce more food in the country
‘Your moral and financial support to Government and private sector will engage three quarters of those who are idle to go for agro-business in agriculture sector and animal farming, agro-business and farming as you said already Torit can even produce the food that can even feed the whole of South Sudan. As a new born nation there are many consequences of war, these Torit state citizens are hardworking, it was the fear of the unknown that made our people not to produce enough food for themselves’, he notes.
While Tobiolo Alberio Oromo, Governor of Torit State admits that civil servants have last received their monthly salary since March this year.
‘We have not yet got the salary of April, but you are getting money daily in your pockets so this is the kind of business we expect this South Sudan. If South Sudanese don’t want we the people should do, so these are what we want, Politic will not help anybody in this South Sudan, youth politic will not help anybody and you need to know what is politic, politic is all about food, if you have food, you have good friends, you don’t have food in your house you don’t visitors, you don’t have friends’, he regrets.
Civil servants in Torit stayed for over six months without getting their incentives leaving many families without food.
The speakers made the statement on Wednesday.