The final national dialogue conference begins tomorrow for a period of two weeks with the participation of more than 500 delegates from different communities and political parties across South Sudan. However, the Sudan's People Liberation Movement-In Opposition (SPLM-IO) and the National Democratic Movement (NDM) have distanced themselves from the conference. 

President Kiir is expected to grace the opening ceremony of the much-awaited conference in Juba tomorrow. Other dignitaries expected to attend the opening session include the South African President Cyril Ramaphosa although virtually, African Union Commission chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat, the IGAD special envoy to South Sudan Ismail Wais, and representatives from Uganda and Kenya.

Speaking to Radio Tamazuj, Vincent Mark Wanga, the head of communications and information of the South Sudan National Dialogue Secretariat said delegates from across the country will attend the conference.

“We have invited almost 500 participants from all over South Sudan who are expected to arrive and join this conference. So, as of this week, Juba will be full of delegates from the states. As you might know, the National Dialogue began with grassroots consultations, and from each county, we selected nine participants to come to the regional conference and from the nine, we asked them to select three participants to come for the national dialogue. So, we have three from each county across South Sudan. We have 79 counties in South Sudan,” he said.

Mark said the delegates represent farmers, church leaders, teachers, politicians, traders, civil society, the South Sudan Council of Churches, representatives of political parties, doctors, and judges. 

He stated that all political parties in the country have confirmed participation in the conference except the SPLM-IO.

"All the political parties have confirmed their participation in this program but we only have SPLM-IO that are not going to participate in the dialogue," Mark said. “I was among the delegates who attended the meeting with Dr. Machar and our co-chair told him that he is now part of the government and the national dialogue is the voices of the people of South Sudan. It is not the voice of President Kiir or any leader. Our co-chair asked Dr. Machar why he did not join this process. He said it was something good but at a wrong time.” 

The National Democratic Movement (NDM) has also distanced itself from the conference. 

In a letter addressed to the National Dialogue co-chair Angelo Beda and seen by Radio Tamazuj, the NDM chairman Lam Akol said his party will not participate in the conference whose aim he says has been superseded by the peace agreement.  

"The National Democratic Movement does not see any useful purpose to be served by the 'South Sudan National Dialogue Conference. We should instead speed up the implementation of the relevant provisions of the R-ARCSS on the matters that are now behind schedule. specifically, our attention should be focused on the holding of the workshop for the parties to agree on the details of conducting the constitution-making process (Article 6.7 of R-ARCSS). This will be followed by the actual preparations and convening of the constitutional conference(Articles 6.8-6.16 of R-ARCSS. This is the only inclusive political process the stakeholders have agreed on and nothing should detract us from that course," reads part of the letter.

The governance system, economy, national security, land issues, and social cohesion among South Sudanese are some of the agenda to be discussed in the conference.

Responding to concerns on whether the conference outcomes will be implemented, Mark said, "We have something called a follow-up and implementation mechanism. This office will be established to follow up on all the suggestions. If there are communities that demand boarding schools and the minister doesn’t implement this, this office will question the minister and hold him or her accountable. This office will work with the government, NGOs, and all other communities across the country,” he assured.

On 14th December 2016, South Sudanese President Salva Kiir Mayardit, announced a National Dialogue Initiative with ten points on top of which was ’ending all forms of violence in the country’. The initiative was met with divergent reactions locally, regionally, and internationally. 

The National Dialogue consultation process started in early November 2017 at the local and regional level and was envisioned to end in mid-2018 with the National Dialogue Conference in late 2018.