The Commissioner of Wau County is unable to discharge his duties at the county headquarters for more than a year after his appointment due to an unresolved dispute.
George Peter Tong, an SPLM-appointed commissioner of Wau County, has been unable to go to the county headquarters in Baggari since his appointment due to an unresolved political dispute. Commissioner Peter was appointed on 15 March 2022 and currently works from Wau municipality.
The dispute dates back to the 2012 political crisis and violence over transferral of Wau county headquarters to Baggari payam.
Baggari is currently under the opposition SPLM-IO.
Speaking in Wau town during a swearing-in ceremony of Western Bahr el Ghazal state ministers, advisors and Jur River County Commissioner, the Deputy Speaker of National Parliament Kornelio Kon expressed concern over the failure of the parties to the peace agreement to resolve a dispute over the headquarters of Wau County.
The deputy speaker said the state governor Sarah Cleto and her deputy Zachariah Joseph Garang need to make efforts to enable Commissioner George Tongo to assume his duties in Baggari, the county headquarters.
“Why is the issue of Wau County headquarters not getting resolved while there are leaders in the state? If there are leaders in Western Bahr el Ghazal state and for development to prevail, then there should be a dialogue to allow the commissioner to assume his duties at the county headquarters,” said Ngu.
“The issue is not about Baggari but about the services to reach the citizens on the ground,” he added.
Ngu, who is a leading member of the Opposition Political Parties (OPP), blames the state government officials headed by Governor Sarah Cleto and deputy Zachariah Joseph Garang for not finding a solution to the issue of Wau County.
“In South Sudan, there is no state with only three counties but it is a result that Western Bahr el Ghazal people are not accepting each other when coming to politics. We did not come through our choice that we find ourselves in this state with different tribes, but it is God that created us to stay together,” he stressed.
“The opposition leader is in J1 with President Salva Kiir. Why is the issue of Baggari becoming a problem that cannot be solved? We know that there were problems that happened, but let’s try to find a solution and reach a consensus,” he said.
Reacting to the deputy speaker’s remarks, Governor Sarah Cleto, a leading member of the opposition SPLM-IO, said the issue of Wau County goes back to the 2012 violence in which seven people were killed after the former governor Rizik Zackaria Hassan ordered the transfer of Wau county headquarters to Baggari and Jur River to Nyinakok.
“Honorable Kornelio Kon has spoken about the crisis that happened in South Sudan since 1955, 1983, 2013, and 2016 until we reached today. He spoke a lot about Wau county history but he did not recall the 2012 incident which happened in Wau in which some youth were killed,” she said.
“Honourable Kornelio said that all these crises were resolved. If the 1955 crisis got resolved in 1972, 1983 got resolved in 2005, 2013 got resolved in 2015, and 2016 got resolved in 2018, did we resolve the 2012 incidents? I need an answer from you all. The youth who were killed, their relatives did not make any funeral and we want to do their funeral,” she added.
“If we need to go ahead with the issue of Wau County and we progress, let us start the funeral for the youth who lost their lives. Let us not talk about this issue. I want to say that our mandate in this government is to implement the peace agreement,” she concludes.