(JUBA) – South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit has directed the formation of a high level technical committee to launch the South Sudan Official Gazette and improve the official website of the Office of the President.
The presidential order, announced on state broadcaster SSBC, aims to create a secure, transparent and sustainable national system for publishing official state documents. This includes both a physical and an electronic version of the gazette.
The committee will be chaired by the secretary-general of the government, with the undersecretary of the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs serving as deputy chairperson. Other members include senior officials from the Ministry of Information, Communication Technology and Postal Services, the National Communication Authority, and the Office of the President.
The committee’s primary task is to operationalize the gazette by establishing a secure workflow, including encrypted digital verification, to prevent forgery or manipulation of official documents.
The system will publish the Constitution and its amendments, Acts of Parliament, presidential decrees, provisional orders, ministerial regulations, government notices, and other legal instruments.
The initiative also includes a redesign and upgrade of the presidential website to serve as the main host for the electronic gazette. The public will have read-only access to official documents through the secure portal.
A key focus of the project is addressing a backlog of laws, decrees, and resolutions enacted since 2011. These documents will be categorised and prepared for publication to ensure legal certainty across the country.
The committee may bring in technical experts, legal draftspersons, and security consultants as needed. All government institutions are required to provide original documents upon request.
President Kiir has given the committee 14 days to complete its technical assessment, workflow design, and resource allocation plan. Following this, the committee must submit a final operational report and the first edition of the South Sudan Official Gazette, Volume One.
Once submitted, the president will formally launch the physical gazette, the e-gazette portal, and the upgraded presidential website, marking the start of South Sudan’s new system for official state notifications.
The move follows recent directives limiting on-air government announcements on SSBC to appointments or removals of governors, national ministers, deputy ministers, and vice presidents. Under the new rules, all presidential documents are classified as privileged executive communication and cannot be photographed, scanned, or shared online. Documents must be delivered confidentially to the relevant authority for execution, with the Office of the President no longer serving them directly.
