S. Sudan’s ruling SPLM promises more women will be appointed in remaining positions
![South Sudan's minister of parliamentary affairs and Acting Secretary-General of the ruling Sudans People's Liberation Movement, Jemma Nunu Kumba, attends a 10-nation Nile River forum on June 19, 2014 in the Sudanese capital Khartoum [Photo via Getty Images]](https://i1.wp.com/www.sudanspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/gettyimages-450862488-1024x1024-1.jpg)
South Sudan’s minister of parliamentary affairs and Acting Secretary-General of the ruling Sudans People’s Liberation Movement, Jemma Nunu Kumba, attends a 10-nation Nile River forum on June 19, 2014 in the Sudanese capital Khartoum [Photo via Getty Images]
This comes days after two activists in the country’s capital Juba sued the SPLM faction at South Sudan Supreme Court for failure to fulfill women’s 35% share of power provided for in the revitalized peace agreement.
Women were angered in June when President Salva Kiir appointed men to all the six state gubernatorial positions allocated to the SPLM faction by the 2018 IGAD-brokered peace agreement.
The SPLM-IO is the only party among the signatories to the revitalized peace agreement that has allocated one position – out of only three – to a woman politician: Sarah Cleto who is now the governor for Western Bahr el Ghazal state.
Speaking during a virtual debate conducted in Juba on Monday, Jemma Nunu Kumba, the acting SPLM Secretary-General, said the party had been petitioned by women group over the issue and that it is going to appoint more women politicians in remaining positions.
“Women came up clearly and put up their proposals as to how they would like to see themselves participating within the remaining appointments,” Kumba who is also the minister of parliamentary affairs said.
“So for us as a party, we are going to make sure that this 35 percent is implemented within the remaining positions,” Nunu added.
The senior government official however acknowledged that it has always been a tendency to appoint men into crucial positions in South Sudan.
“Most of these parties are headed by men, and that’s one of the challenges we are facing. The chairperson, the secretary generals are all men [and] when opportunities come for nominations, automatically the men nominate themselves,” she said.
“We need to remain vigilant as women within their respective political parties to raise their voices to ensure that this does not happen,” she added.
She further said that “at least we should have maybe two [speakers] from our quarter.”