Greater Upper Nile conference of the National Dialogue in Juba in May 2019 | Credit | Deng Gai

The National Dialogue Steering Committee has postponed the planned conference for the Equatoria region by a week over lack of venue.

The conference initially scheduled for August 19 will now be held a week late -on August 26.

According to the Secretariat, the Freedom Hall which they always use for their activities has been booked by members of National Parliament who will be using the same venue for parliamentary sessions.

The legislators shifted meetings to Freedom Hall in June to allow renovation works at the parliament building.

The MPs are expected to continue using the hall to debate the 2019/2020 budget which they have not passed for the last 2 months.

Vincent Mark Wanga -the Head of Information Committee at the National Dialogue Secretariat said this has forced the planned Equatoria conference to be delayed by 7 days.

“They said if we were to conduct the conference on the 19^th we will disorganize them because they are still going to the second reading of the budget, that is why they asked us to push it to 26,” he said.

President Salva Kiir launched the National Dialogue in May 2017 for South Sudanese to discuss political, social and economic problems facing the country, and also offer a platform for reconciliation and healing.

Two regional conferences -for Bahr el-Ghazal and Upper Nile have already been held in Juba at Freedom hall -ahead of the national conference.