Jonglei State governor, Mahjoub Biel Turuk, said he would try to ‘fix the mess’ left by his predecessor Denay Jock Chagor, restore systems and introduce reforms but warned that the challenges facing his administration are enormous.
In an exclusive interview with Radio Tamazuj, Governor Mahjoub promised to set up effective systems for managing resources to benefit the people of the state. He said he had begun cleaning things up in the first weeks after becoming governor in June.
Below are edited excerpts:
Q. Governor Mahjoub, what were the findings of your recent inspection of some areas in the state?
A. Thank you so much Radio Tamazuj for giving me this opportunity to speak to the people of South Sudan at large and Jonglei State in particular. Jonglei is one of the largest states and has nine counties. It borders five states; Upper Nile, Central Equatoria, Lakes, Pibor and Eastern Equatoria.
When I became governor, I thought it was important to visit the counties to meet people and understand the challenges facing them.
Secondly, the state is also affected by floods and I paid a visit to Nyirol County where I had a chance to listen to the challenges facing people there. I visited Ayod and Mangalla where there are the internally displaced people due to floods and visited payams in Bor County. We are now left with the other counties because there is a lack of access due to floods such as Fangak and Pigi.
Q. What common challenges face the areas that you visited?
A. In Nyirol, people talked about floods and damages to the properties. We found the same complaint in Ayod and the Magalla IDP camps, as well as payams in Bor County.
Nyirol and Ayod do not have strong mobile networks, but that is not an issue in Mangalla and Bor. In addition, there are complaints about water-borne diseases and malaria caused by floods and mosquitos and there is a need for clean drinking water and shelter for those displaced families. I also received complaints in some areas about criminal activities involving child and women abductions caused by some elements who come from the Greater Pibor Administrative Area, but we are in constant consultation with the Pibor authorities.
Q. What are the main challenges you have faced since you became governor?
A. I can say they are enormous. For example, the insecurity between Jonglei and Pibor because youth from both sides are involved in cattle raiding, child and women abductions as well as violent clashes.
Secondly, there are inter-clan fighting that often occur and the state is vast and there are poor roads. There is no effective law enforcement in all the nine counties. For example, you find government forces in some parts, while others are controlled by the SPLA-IO led by First Vice President Dr Riek Machar. We have started to talk to the commissioners and chiefs to strengthen the traditional court systems to control revenge killings and blood compensations. The other challenge is that we do not have enough prisons in most of the counties and this affects accountability and imprisonment of those who commit crimes. The only prison is located in Bor, which is very far from some counties and movement of people is always difficult during the rainy season. We are planning to engage NGOs to build three more prisons. The other challenge is the proliferation of arms among the civilians, so the crime rate is high. There is a need for a coordinated plan with the national government to control arms.
Q. What have you done in terms of salaries for civil servants?
A. I can say most of the civilians in the rural areas are not working for the government, so the issue of the salaries is not a major challenge. For those who are in towns, delays in payment is understandable because of the stoppage of oil production due to the war in Sudan.
About the recent protests by the health workers in Bor, it was about delays in payment of incentives by the responsible organizations, not the government. The other issue that caused protests was the prices in the market but it is a countrywide problem. We reviewed some prices and subsided the essential commodities and we understand the economic challenges facing our citizens.
Q. There are reports that Jonglei has been generating a lot of local revenue and Personal Income Tax from NGOs? How is the state utilizing these resources?
A. We have two sectors for local revenue. Yes, we collect revenue from companies and personal income tax and the NGO. It is not a lot of money and we use those resources to address security challenges, Some money is used to address problems caused by floods. The other areas are the daily running of the state government.
Q. Radio Tamazuj received complaints about malpractices by the previous administration. What have you done to ensure accountability, transparency and efficiency?
A. It is true that the previous administration made many mistakes and there were a lot of malpractices. For the past four years, the governor was not present in the state, he was based in Juba. He would come to the state headquarters for a few days to collect whatever he wanted to collect then go back to Juba. There were no meetings of the council of ministers, so there was a political and administrative vacuum. That affected the state and is affecting us now because we are starting from scratch. If you do not conduct regular council of ministers meetings, it means you do not plan and address the priorities of the government. The governor and his deputy must stay in the state for the government to function properly.
We have resumed the administrative work and all employees and ministers have adhered to the new policy. The state used to be a temporary residence for the former administration because all the former ministers and the governor used to stay in hotels and now we are repaying many loans. The former governor used to stay in a hotel although he had a state government residence.
We have now formed committees to ensure that there is monitoring and accountability for the use of the locally collected revenue.
Q. There have been complaints about neglect of the state MP, with some succumbing to treatable diseases. What is your administration doing?
A. As mentioned earlier, under the previous administration, everything was in the hand of the governor, but after I came in, I have tried to improve the situation of the state MPs, the state ministers and the employees. From the resources we collect locally, we ensure that the state assembly is given something to improve their situation monthly because we know oil is unlikely to resume production soon. We want the state government to function without challenges. We have support for MPs and ministers whenever they need it.
Q. Tell the public about the civic space and human rights situation in the state?
A. I issued an order on June 24 to ensure civic and political space in the state. We want people to be free. We also conducted a workshop to allow freedoms in the state and political parties are free to disseminate their programs and manifestos. There was one of the civil society organizations that was investigated because of its support and one of the members fled the country, but I have recently asked him to come back to the state and he is now back.
Q. What can you consider your successes so far?
A. I have succeeded in maintaining security in most areas, especially between Pibor and us. We managed to recover many abducted children and we handled some intercommunal violence peacefully and most recently the fighting between the Ayual and the Hol clans.
My administration has succeeded in sending delegations to the flood-affected areas so that the government can stand with the affected people. We have succeeded in ensuring that there is a harmonious working relationship between all the parties in the state and there are freedoms and civic space. I also have held talks with Central Equatoria to discuss the possible return of the IDPs in Mangalla to their state. We have also resumed regular meetings of the council of the ministers and there is a regular weekly security meeting to address security challenges.
Q. What is your final message?
A. The insecurity between Pibor and us is a major challenge but we are coordinating to manage and control it. We have agreed on mutual visits to remove some of the hurdles and control the criminal groups. We want to create a joint cattle market to encourage peace and dialogue between the two areas. We also suggested that some chiefs could exchange visits between Jonglei and Pibor. In addition, we want to have some students from Pibor to get scholarships to study in Jonglei to encourage peace and we are thinking about a joint court too. We are coming up with ideas on how to control insecurity.