Members of the Gogrial State parliament have approved a cabinet of seven members, despite differences among them over the selection of officials for the new cabinet.

Atong Manyuat, speaker of the assembly, said in an interview on Tuesday that the parliament had approved the cabinet after deliberations by the members.

“The members of parliament have approved the cabinet and the cabinet has now taken oath of office. We expect them to now assume their duties and begin to work. Our people need services and this was why the parliament did not want to delay the approval of the cabinet because any delay would create administrative vacuum in the provision of services,” Atong explained when asked on Monday whether the local parliament had approved the new cabinet.

She said none of the officials on the list of those cabinet ministers presented to the parliament by the governor was rejected by the house because all those who were appointed would deliver if given the opportunity and support they would require to discharge their normal duties to deliver services to the people in the state.

“The whole list has been approved. No one was rejected. They are people from Gogrial. They know they will work to deliver services because these are their own people and there was no reason to reject them. I know they will deliver. This was why they were selected by the governor because he knows who will work with him to provide services to our people,” she said.

On the other hand, Atong admitted that there were voices among members in the house agitating for rejection of some members of the cabinet but they were a minority.

“The approval of the cabinet was put to vote and majority of the members approved it, which is a normal practice in the house. Majority approved the cabinet. Of course you cannot have people sharing the same views almost in everything, even in the same house. There are times family members don’t get along and that does not stop them from living together. This is human practice,” she explained.

Several members of parliament said in separate interviews that the speaker had bulldozed the approval of the cabinet without subjecting the cabinet to thorough and proper scrutiny and examination of their credentials, including educational background, experience and loyalty to the party.

The reasons for the rush to approve the cabinet, according to some members, were for the speaker to demonstrate her loyalty to Governor Abraham Gum, who allegedly instructed some of the members of parliament at the time to appoint her during parliamentary voting for the position of speaker, despite not meeting constitutional requirements.

Some members have even charged that Atong is illiterate, saying that the speaker of the parliament must be someone who is able to read and write.

Gogrial State is one of 28 states created by President Salva Kiir by decree but challenged as unconstitutional by a coalition of opposition parties. The country's constitution says that there are only 10 states.

Monitors of the peace agreement have called the creation of the 28 states a “violation” of the peace agreement. Salva Kiir says the 28 states are the demand of the people.

File photo: Governor Abraham Gum