Opposition groups condemn extension of ‘destructive’ lifespan of unity government

JUBA, FEBRUARY 23^rd 2023 (SUDANS POST) – South Sudan’s holdout opposition groups on Wednesday condemned in a statement the extension of the transitional period by twenty-four more months, calling it a “continued usurpation of the rights” of the people of South Sudan.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity (R-TGoNU) announced end of its previous thirty-six-month term and the start of the twenty-four month period provided for in a peace roadmap signed by the parties last August.

In a statement, the National Consensus Forum (NCF), a group of holdout opposition political groups comprising the Real SPLM, NAS, SSUF/A, NDM-PF, STEPS We64, PCCA, SAA, SSNMC, Academics and Professionals, SSCC, SSPM/A, RCM, NPM, and CODA condemned the extension the unity government’s term.

“The National Consensus Forum (NCF) denounces in the strongest terms possible and rejects the continued illegal usurpation of the right of our people by the outgoing government in South Sudan, to extend the corrosive and destructive life of the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity (R-TGONU) whose prime and narrow goal has always been that of remaining in power and maintaining the status quo,” they said.

“This outrageous and illegal RTGONU act of deceit and manipulation just reaffirms the repeated malpractice of the same elite in the previous transitional governments which without consulting the sovereign people from whom democratic authority and power is universally derived, similarly extended their time in power six times in the last decade with arrogance and with complete impunity,” they added.

The statement argued that that the transitional government has failed to consolidate peace and answer to aspirations of the people of South Sudan for peace since the signing of the revitalized peace agreement in September 2018 and that the opposition groups will not allow the parties to the revitalized peace agreement to continue to steal people’s power.

“The masses of our long-neglected people are not ready to see this illegal practice continue in silence. The NCF, the voice of the voiceless majority, the oppressed, the neglected, the unpaid worker, the sick without access to health care, the youth without jobs, the much-maligned women, and children, not going to school, condemns the extension in the strongest terms possible,” they said.

“This time around the populace and its leadership are determined not to allow the much-discredited RTGONU to usurp their democratic right to free, transparent, and inclusive consultations on their future.

“If the R-TGONU exhausted fifty-two months, a sufficient time frame within which to completely implement the R-ARCSS, and failed miserably to implement the Agreement, then, what newly found magic will power shall it summon to successfully complete the implementation within the arrogated twenty-four months before extending its life again?

“NCF views the extension simply as the postponing of the crisis in South Sudan by increasing suffering, death from unknown gunmen, corruption, kidnapping, poor governance, human rights violations, land grabbing and much more.

“Convinced and vindicated by the fact that the outgoing RTGONU and its self-appointed interim period will not resolve the country’s intractable crisis, the NCF reiterates its consistent clarion call for an inclusive round table conference where all South Sudanese stakeholders can, in a conducive environment, freely discuss and agree on the most appropriate solutions to the Crisis in South Sudan and determine a new road map based on a new social contract embodied in a new dispensation to save their country from imminent collapse and disintegration.”