Yesterday, President Salva Kiir issued a Republican Decree removing the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Beatrice Khamisa Wani replacing her with former Minister of Presidential Affairs Mayiik Ayii Deng who was removed in 2020 after corruption allegations on Juba-Bahr el Ghazal highway.
Kiir had stated in 2020 that he removed Mayiik Ayii, who was replaced by Barnaba Marial Benjamin, because of corrupting the construction of the Juba-Bahr el Ghazal highway and as such was not ready to accommodate such ministers.
“My brother Mayiik did not have any problem with me but there was one problem, the road to Bar-el-Gazal. The company that we contracted was Shandong High Speed, how did it come out that it is now Shandong Nile Investment, that was the problem,” said Kiir at the time.
“The road was started in a very poor way. One rain only destroyed it all, it only that he is not here, and he would have answered if he had anything to say.”
Following the appointment, citizens including prominent activists took to social media to criticize the former minister’s appointment to the top diplomatic position of the world’s youngest country with some describing him as a ‘corrupt’ person who the president should not bring back into the public service.
“President Kiir fires you for corrupting public funds and reappoints you back. President Kiir appreciates and reward thieves. Failed Leadership,” activist Wani Michael of the advocacy group Okay Africa said in a social media Facebook post.
In respond to the social media criticism, the Press Secretary in the Office of the President Ateny Wek Ateny said Kiir as a head of state “has the prerogative to appoint and relieve anybody so deem necessary.”
“The public should know that when the president comes back to appoint the person, it is on the basis that the president might have got better information that gives him confidence that the person he relieved last time was relieved based on the information that time but now this is new information that led the president to be appointed the same person. We are all human.”
Almost all Kiir’s reappointments are former thieves who in a real country should be in jail for life. So I am not surprised that Mayik is back.
To the Concern Citizens of South Sudan,
Like most of you, I feel compelled by the truth and facts regarding South Sudan political administration mismanagement that always takes place across the ministries of South Sudan government. I have read the statements of many who voiced out their concerns criticizing President Salva Kiir appointment of Hon. Mayiik Ayei Deng based on the allegations of corruption in his previous post as Presidential Affairs Minister.
Truth hurts, but truth must be told. I for one, I have been critical of the SPLM failure to tackle the corruption among other issues in South Sudan. Let’s be fair and just to answer whether or not many holding or who held government posts whether in civil sector or military are immune from the allegations of corruption? Like it or not, not many are free from that corruption allegations and the list is long with more than ten, per se, as an example among many of those currently holding posts in the government of South Sudan, but who aren’t vindictive of the corruption. It follows then, that since our country has been shaky from all that Political turmoil since it’s independence in 2011 what matters most isn’t singling out individuals based on their previous misconducts for which they were not legally charged for peace couldn’t be in South Sudan if that were to be the case.
Like Hon. Ateny Week Ateny stated on his comments about the appointment of Hon. Deng “The president has the prerogative Power to appoint the Ministeries”. What the South Sudanese need to do is to have a fair independent Judiciary System in which the public officials are held accountable for their misconducts and that’s going to be hard untill when there’s peace and stability in the country Fair Judicial Point! The problem is can the SPLM Party and the Opposition Parties agree and allow Judiciary Independent System free from Politics that can be able to hold public officials accountable for the wrongs as for example say can be found in USA or other countries?