Mogae tightens grip on South Sudan president
Tefo Pheage | Wednesday February 3, 2016 18:04
Mogae is chairperson of the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC) in the South Sudan conflict.
The troubled country’s president Salva Kiir, according to the South Sudan media, has sought to establish 28 new states largely along ethnic lines, replacing the 10 existing states. Kiir also appointed 28 state governors from his party.
The other two main signatories of the 2015 peace agreement, SPLM-IO and SPLM-FD, have rejected his plan. The SPLM-IO had been promised two of the country’s 10 governorships according to last August peace deal.
Mogae, according to international media, told the African Union Peace and Security Council that the effort by the South Sudanese government to create 28 states was a “violation” of the peace agreement. He blamed the government for creating an “impasse” that had also led to threats of war.
In a statement dated January 29, Mogae said that the parties to the peace agreement must establish the transitional power-sharing government and must not allow the controversy over the 28 states to derail the agreement.
“We must also demonstrate to the parties the absolute urgency in concluding the practical and security arrangements necessary to establish the Transitional Government of National Unity (TGoNU), and that, as important an issue it may be, the question of the number of states can be addressed through dialogue and a formal process of boundary review, but that this violation of the Agreement by the present Government should not be allowed to demolish the entire structure of the peace process.”
The former Botswana president last month called on the government and SPLM-IO to negotiate a compromise over the states issue, but in his more recent statement he also cautioned that, “continued re-negotiation of the terms of the Agreement is not an option that will be entertained”.
“The Government’s action has led to an impasse and a challenge in sequencing the implementation of the Agreement: it refuses to agree to a new text for the transitional constitution that does not provide for 28 states; the SPLM/A (IO) refuses a text that states anything other than 10 states, and has so far ruled out formation of the TGoNU on the basis of the Agreement, which is based on 10 states,” said Mogae.