Women leaders in South Sudan’s Yei River County of Central Equatoria State demand affirmative action in key decision making positions in the county, in the wake of recent appointments.

Last week, the governor of Central Equatoria State Emmanuel Adil Anthony issued a decree for the appointment of 17 Director-Generals for various state ministries with only one female Director-General.

“Our rights have been undermined, we have been speaking about women representation but it has not been considered and for now we are demanding our rights to be given to us to represent our views as women," Mary Ciama told Radio Tamazuj, saying underrepresentation of women undermines their participation in the development process of the state.

“We have come to realize that the 35% affirmative action is not considered because if you look at the recently appointed deputy governor and even director generals at the state levels, most of them are males. Moreover, we have women who are educated and where are they positioning women in the state?” wondered Hawa Adam, another woman leader in the county.

In the governor's defense, the press secretary Derick Derickson said affirmative action will be considered in other political appointments.

“These appointments are based on technicalities and these are not political appointments. and this was a list brought to the governor and the governor only confirmed the list and the 35% women representation is going to be considered in the next appointments” he explained.

According to Chapter one of the 2018 revitalized peace agreement, a 35 percent quota has been given to women including director-generals in the ministries, executive directors, and senior local government officials.

Several civil society activists in South Sudan have repeatedly reminded parties to the peace agreement to consider women's representation in the governance system of the country.