South Sudan lacks judicial officers at state level, says prominent Judge

The Chairperson for Judicial Reform Committee James Ogoola on Thursday said the shortage of judicial officers in the states is denying many people services.

He called on the judiciary to increase the number of judges and courts at the state level in order to expedite justice.

“When we went to the state we found one junior judge in Yambio, in Wau, in Malakal and in Pibor, it tended to be one second grade county judge, no high court judge  and definitely no court of appeal judges and therefore access to justice becomes an issue,” said Ogoola during press conference held at Radisson Blu Hotel in Juba.

“The criticism normally is the judiciary is low, the backlog is huge, the judiciary needs a lot of support from elsewhere, it needs number of judges, number of courts and even running criminal cases,” he said.

Chan Reech Madut, the Chief Justice said the government is working to increase the number of judges in courts, adding that the employment of additional number of judges will reduce case backlog in the judiciary.

“Hopefully, we are going to have additional members  in the Supreme Court, additional members in the Court of Appeal and the lower courts, these are some of the things we are doing to address the issue of backlog of cases,” said Madut.

Ogoola said the judiciary of South Sudan is critical in defending the rule of law, adding that an independent judiciary will guarantee the delivery of justice for all people across the country.

“Judiciary should be at the top of everything we are doing now; we are transiting in the executive area, in the legislative area. We should give similar weight to the judicial transition, it is the judiciary that will safe South Sudan in the next 20 years from now,” he said.