A civil Society Activist is appealing to the Presidency to give clear directives to the new cabinet on how it should deliver services to South Sudanese.
Rajab Mohandis is the Executive Director for Responsive Governance and also representative of the civil society in the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission or RJMEC.
He says he expects the Presidency to give clear directives to the Ministers and lines that once they cross, they will face consequences.
‘We are also expecting that the Ministers will get very clear directives from the Presidency on what they should be doing and lines that once they cross, they will face consequences because we are familiar with the situation in our country from all these years since we became independent. We haven’t done so much to ourselves as a country. Roads have not been constructed, schools largely remain in the hands or support of the international organizations, and the health sector is heavily supported by international organizations”, says Mohandis.
The civil society activist warns that South Sudan will remain a fragile and the most corrupt country in the world if the Ministers are not well directed.
‘We feel that if these ministers this time are not given clear directives that they should deliver on their mandate and failure to deliver on their mandate, should mean consequences, we will then see the same things happening. For example, issues to do with failure to deliver on their mandate, mismanagement of resources, if you follow the corruption index, our country is at the top of the most corrupt countries in the world” he stresses.
He calls on South Sudan to reverse the bad global records about the country.
‘We want to see these records reversed. If we continue to hang their [continue to be fragile and corrupt], it is an indication that we are not making any progress. So some of these global indicators are important to show us how we are moving. So in these areas, we haven’t seen any change yet, and this gives us concerns that if much is not being done by the Presidency and leaders of the parties, we might continue to see business as usual, South Sudan hanging at the top, leading the world in terms of the most corrupt country, being also the most fragile country, and having no services to the people’, Mohandis.
Mohandis adds that South Sudan ‘Will continue relying heavily on humanitarian aid, our people may continue to face these issues of inter-communal violence and insecurity to themselves, and weak link from the national to the state governments in terms of responding to citizens’ needs’.
Before the formation of the unity government, Rajab Mohandis and other civil society activists appealed to the leaders to form a unity government based on merits to deliver good services to South Sudanese.
The Cabinet is the Executive Branch of the Government of South Sudan appointed by the Presidency and reports to the President.
South Sudan’s president announced the Cabinet for the transitional coalition government in Feburary 2020, following the revitalized peace agreement reached in September 2018.