A disagreement among top officials in the South Sudanese government culminated in the deployment of security forces to the premises of the state radio and television in Juba on Tuesday, as the country’s president remains outside of the country.
Rising tensions between the Director General of state-run South Sudan TV and Radio (SSTV) Khamis Abdel-Latif and the Minister of Information Michael Makuei reached a crisis point when the latter issued a ministerial order transferring Khamis from his position.
The SSTV director then ordered his staff not to read the ministerial order over the state radio and television, according to a source within the state institution. When the minister sent the order to SSTV staff again, Khamis came by the station yesterday evening and again stopped it from being read.
This prompted Makuei to order the office at the station to be locked and to dispatch National Security personnel to the reception gate to prevent Khamis from entering the premises, according to the same source, who said that there was “serious tension” at the station yesterday evening.
Khamis, an ex-security official who took up his post only a month ago, is said to have refused the minister’s order on the grounds that he had been appointed by presidential decree and could not therefore be removed by a mere ministerial order.
“I objected to this order as I was appointed by the President of the Republic and not the minister,” reads a purported resignation letter sent to Radio Tamazuj and other media houses. “I have realized that Minister Makuei Lueth has a vendetta against me. Because since I came to this ministry exactly four weeks ago he has been interfering with my work.”
The letter also accuses Makuei of ordering him not to show any Nuer communities on national TV, an order to which he reportedly objected.
Reached by phone on Wednesday morning, Abdel-Latif declined to confirm the authenticity of this resignation letter, while confirming that Makuei sought to transfer him from SSTV. However, the former security official stressed that a ministerial order cannot necessarily cancel a presidential order, reiterating a key point of the letter.
He also confirmed that National Security deployed to the station yesterday evening, but denied that he had been threatened or arrested.
Prior to his appointment as SSTV director, Khamis served as Security Advisor at the Ministry of Interior before being dismissed and then appointed to the Police Service by Kiir in November 2013.
A native of Lakes State, Khamis was briefly detained in December 2013 but denied any connection to the so-called ‘coup’ attempt and was later released and not charged with committing any crime.
South Sudan’s national television and radio typically broadcast information about government events and state visits and messages for military mobilization and morale.
The state media service has limited reach because of lack of infrastructure and destruction of radio equipment in Malakal, Bor and elsewhere since December 2013, but still plays a key role in the capital Juba.
File photo: Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth