The Central Equatoria State SPLM held a one-day symposium today at Nyakuron Cultural Center with a view to addressing the crisis within the party, which has been divided at the national level.
SPLM State Party Chairman Clement Wani Konga dispatched his deputy Stephen Lemi to chair the event, the lead speaker of which was the national SPLM Vice Chairman James Wani Igga.
Besides Igga, the event was attended by state ministers and other officials and party members, under the theme “Developing a formidable and robust political party.”
Lemi said the meeting aimed to develop the capacity of the party.
He said SPLM had an obligation to serve the citizens: “It is the citizens who made SPLM to be a winner in the last election and we should pay them back.”
James Wani Igga, the vice president and vice chairman of the party, addressed the gathered party members, saying that such meetings can improve the performance of the party.
He also called on all members of the SPLM to start registering people to the party and stressed the need for party discipline and fighting corruption.
“Our problem is we don’t punish people – and that is why they create impunity in the party because in a party truth must be there, correcting mistakes and punishing those who wrong,” he said.
The party vice chairman also disclosed that next week he will travel to Western Bahr al Ghazal to try to mobilize support and plan for an upcoming intra-party SPLM conference.
Igga and the state SPLM party chairman Clement Wani Konga are the most senior politicians in the party from Central Equatoria.
The former was a long-time member of SPLM since before the country’s 2005 peace agreement, whereas Konga ascended to the governorship in 2005 as an appointee of the then-ruling NCP party, and only joined SPLM one year later.
The two politicians have come down on opposite sides of the federalism debate. Last month Konga said that Igga may have been ordered by the president not to talk about federalism, while noting that he would refuse to be silent on the issue.
Related:
Who’s who of the SPLM-Juba: James Wani Igga (10 July)