South Sudan: It didn�t have to come to this :: Mmegi Online

The people of South Sudan have not had rest over the past festive season and the misery still continues. Civil war broke out when President Salva Kiir Mayardit accused his former vice president of instigating a coup d’état. Then all hell broke loose. Fighting has continued to now, even as the representatives of the two warring factions are trying to secure a deal in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.

For a State, which is only two and half years old, this is really a catastrophe. The trouble for South Sudan is embedded in its constitution. When they designed their Constitution, it was left open to give the president excessive powers. For a Constitution as recent as this, these excesses should never have been given space. The Constitution was signed into law by the current president at his swearing in ceremony and was effected into law.

This Constitution was constructed at the time when John Garang was still the leader of the SPLM (Sudan People’s Liberation Movement) and he was seen as the embodiment of the struggle for independence. In actual fact, the excessive powers were targeted at him as an individual and not his office.

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