Malong calls for 10-state federal system in South Sudan

NAIROBI – The South Sudan United Front/Army led by former army chief General Paul Malong Awan Anei is calling for a 10-state federal state in South Sudan to end the domination of the central government in Juba.

The armed group on Sunday released its political manifesto where it rejected the “kleptocratic minority regime system of patronage that fueled rampant corruption.”

The manifesto endorsed the Social Democracy as its ideology, stressing that this “form of socialism is what our Pan-African Movement calls “African Socialism”.

Regarding the controversial issue of federalism, the group the famous slogan of the SPLM founder John Garang calling to take the towns to the villages.

“This can truly and only be done if we embrace federalism as a fundamental principle and enact it in our Constitution based on the 10 States as at the signing of the 2015 Agreement on Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan,” reads the political programme

The SSUF further said that the federal system will allow to clearly demarcate between the responsibilities of national and the state governments.

Also, the manifesto said 10% of the income generated from oil or other national resources should be allocated to the state where are located the production areas.

“10% of the revenue may go to the State that has the natural resource, while a formula is formulated on how to distribute the other 90% between the national government and the other states”.

Last September, the opposition alliance SSOMA said they suspended the SSUF of General Paul Malong saying he rejected their vision for a large federal state.

The Alliance calls for a large federal state saying it has been a popular demand.

“The Alliance shall work hard in attaining this noble idea as a bedrock of system of governance in South Sudan, based on the true division of power and wealth to local governments, with the view of fending off any prevailing notion of regional and ethnic disintegration of the nation,” said SSOMA in its charter.