Ruweng community leaders from South Sudan’s Unity State have written a letter to President Salva Kiir asking that the president consult the community and consider their nominees for the post of governor when he appoints a governor of the proposed new ‘Ruweng State’.
Kiir decreed on 2 October that Unity State would be divided into three and he also claimed powers to appoint all governors and members of state assemblies. He has not yet made the appointments to these positions. Previously, the law in South Sudan said that governors were to be elected by the people. A constitutional amendment has been introduced in parliament to change this.
Angelo Chol, former Education Minister in Unity State said Wednesday that their letter was a result of the resolutions of a meeting held recently in Juba by community leaders. He said there were three important messages in the letter.
The first point is to congratulate the president on the creation of 28 states. The second point is to “assure him our support to him and his leadership at all times, bad or good times,” said Chol.
“The last and the most important point of all the issues in the letter is for him to not accept self-nomination, particularly for those politicians aspiring for the post of the governor of Ruweng state,” explained Chol during an interview on Wednesday.
Chol said there were politicians from the area who were avoiding coming together with the community because of their alleged unpopularity and are therefore relying on the will of their friends at the presidency at the expense of the choice of the community.
“There are people known at the level of the community who do not show up in meetings to make their contributions in term of ideas, physical contact and others because they don’t want to come into physical contact with the people for the fear that they could be asked to make clarifications on some the issues they are believed to have played a role against the interest of the community,” he said
The former minister added that a follow-up committee of elders was formed to meet the president to brief him and to hear from him what role the community would play to help expedite “a peaceful implementation of the presidential establishment order and the peace agreement.”
“The people of Ruweng from Abiemnom to Pariang warmly welcomed the presidential order. Actually our people feel it [the Establishment Order] is a response to several petitions submitted to his office seeking the creation of administrative area for the people of Ruweng community. The order is a general response to people’s desire for decentralization which is in line with the SPLM vision of take town to the people,” he said.
Abiemnhom and Pariang counties currently belong to Unity State and are inhabited by ethnic Dinkas. The ‘Establishment Order’ proposes that they be split from the majority Nuer-inhabited Unity State to form their own ‘Ruweng State’.
Previously, the position of deputy governor of Unity State was usually filled by someone from the Ruweng community, but the governor has been a Nuer. The new arrangement will give the Ruweng their own governor based in Pariang, but will halt their political involvement in the affairs of the larger state, which will be dissolved.