The Western Bahr el Ghazal State Legislative Assembly has threatened to impeach the state’s minister of culture, youth, and sports, Muhammad Ali Goni, for turning the Wau Youth Center into a wedding and disco venue.
The embattled minister is a member of and ministerial nominee of the South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA).
According to Agala Simon Mohamed, the chairperson of the committee on information, culture, youth, and sports at the state assembly, Minister Goni has been having a standoff with the lawmakers over his decision to turn the youth center into a wedding and disco venue used by local artistes instead of using the designated Wau Theatre.
The embattled minister also had issues with the state assembly last year when he was questioned about his decision to sell public land allotted for sports activities, including Nala playground and Jazeera ground.
On Wednesday, Agala Simon Mohamed said the Assembly would impeach Minister Goni if he failed to implement the committee’s instructions after being given a third chance to respond to the matters and concerns raised.
“We conducted a sitting about the minister and there were issues we needed from the minister. The agenda included the unrest in the artistes’ union in the state, the issue of the youth center, and when he came to us yesterday (Tuesday), the minister had not implemented all these orders,” he explained. “We acknowledged that the youth center is facing the Auxilium School and there are a lot of crimes which are happening there against young girls which is not good and we told the minister about this. We told him to relocate the disco from the youth center to the theatre. Still, the minister is telling us that the security situation does not favor this and we do not understand him because we do not see insecurity in the town.”
Mohamed revealed that if the minister returns to the committee without a proper report, the committee will report the matter to the General Assembly to decide and raise a motion of impeachment.
He also pointed out that the committee asked the youth and culture minister to bring the list of the artists that are registered with the union after he claimed that there were only 105.
Mohammed disclosed that the Wau Youth Center was constructed for recreational activities like sports but the minister contends that most of the sports teams at the youth center are not registered with his ministry.
Radio Tamazuj’s attempts to contact Minister Goni for comment were futile as he did not answer repeated telephone calls.