Juba, South Sudan
December 9, 2021—South Sudan’s Minister of Health, Hon. Elizabeth Achuei, who was appointed through the ticket of SPLM/A-IO, was booed by the parliamentarians for failing to demonstrate competency at a time she was required by the lawmakers to do so.
Achuei was responding to a motion raised by lawmakers who wanted to know what her ministry had done to mitigate flood impacts in the affected regions in South Sudan.
In her presentation on the matter, Ms. Achuei could hardly be barely understood as she struggled to address the parliament in English.
In addition, the MPs repeatedly made points of order to correct the minister for wrongly naming titles of constitutional post holders as provided by the Conduct of Business Regulation, such as using the right title to refer to the Rt. Hon. Speaker, Hon. Members, etc.
Though Hon. Achuei was asked to allow technical personnel from her ministry to respond to some questions, she insisted and repeated the same mistakes over and over again.
In attempt to silence her, the hall laughed at her over the repeated mistakes, and the minister deemed it necessary to concede her sloppiness and apologized to the members of parliament.
“I am so, so sorry. I am still learning, as you know. I am new. I am a human being, and this is my first time. Sorry, ” Ms Achuei told Members of Parliament.
Minister Achuei was among the eight ministers who were summoned over a month ago to appear before the House and present their plans to address the flood menace in the states.
But they boycotted the call, and only two of them appeared on Monday: Achuei and Peter Mayen, the minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management.
Nonetheless, the duo failed to address the lawmakers after the latter sent them back, citing a lack of adequate preparation. For instance, the ministers were ordered to produce enough copies to enable the members of parliament to follow their presentation.
Besides, their woes piled up as some members called on the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Nathaniel Oyet, to invoke the law and effect their punishment for contempt, citing their boycott.
