Negotiations on whether South Sudan should join the East African Community are set to be held in the first week of November, it was revealed here.
East African Community ( EAC) Secretary General Dr Richard Sezibera
The Communications Officer with the EAC Secretariat here, Mr Richard Owora- Othieno, relayed a statement from the Secretary General of the East African Community, Dr Richard Sezibera, who disclosed that the meeting of the High Level Negotiations are to take place on the 7th and 8th of November in Arusha.
A special team from the Republic of South Sudan will be jetting into Arusha where representatives from EAC Member states of Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi and Tanzania will join them in the task force which will commence its work, and determine rules of procedure and programme.
During its 27th meeting held last August, the EAC Council of Ministers approved the proposed process of handling the negotiations with the Republic of South Sudan to join the East African Community.
The council then established a High Level Negotiation Team; directed the partner states to nominate three members to the High Level Negotiation Team by 30 September 2013; and directed the Secretariat to thereafter convene a meeting of the High Level Negotiation Team to start the negotiations with the Republic of South Sudan.
A visit of a High Level Mission of the Government of the Republic of South Sudan is also expected at the EAC Headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania, in early November 2013.
The negotiation process is expected to be structured in three phases namely; technical negotiations involving technical experts from the EAC that is the three nominees from each Partner State) and the Republic of South Sudan; second phase will involve Permanent or Principal Secretaries to consider recommendations from the technical phase and recommend to an appropriate Ministerial Negotiations.
The third phase will be at the ministerial level. Each of these phased negotiations will systematically feed into each other.
After being rectified, South Sudan will pave way for North Sudan (Khartoum) to also join the EAC because the latter was being hampered by lack of common border with the rest of the community members.
By MARC NKWAME, Tanzania Daily News
