S. Sudan downplays defection of state TV director
January 25, 2015 (JUBA) – The South Sudanese government has downplayed the defection of the head of its state-owned media agency to the armed opposition, saying the latter evaded justice after failing to meet his financial obligations and secure presidential support over a dispute with the information minister.
However, presidential spokesperson Ateny Wek Ateny said Khamis’s defection had no bearing on South Sudan’s politics.
“The biggest problem in the recent war is found in the fact that majority of those who joins are either job seekers or joined after having encountered some problems in their jobs. Some are doing it to escape justice after banks have threatened them to either pay back the monies they owed or face legal suits,” Ateny told Sudan Tribune, confirming comments he posted on Facebook.
“Another thing that made rebellion attractive is the fact that people just travel to Nairobi, Kampala or Addis Ababa by plane and declare their rebellion inside hotels,” he added.
Meanwhile, information minister Michael Makuei Lueth said Khamis’s defection solves the problem he had with him, adding that the ministry was going to take disciplinary measures against him for failure to respect his decision in which he referred him to the headquarters after removing him from being a director of the state owned radio and television in November 2014.
“I have just been informed that there is such a thing. It is his right to defect if he has so decided. I have no comment. We were about to discipline him even, but if he has decided to go, that is the shortest cut for solving the problem,” he added.
Khamis’s defection also confirmed suspicion which saw him removed from his position at SSTV.
Before being appointed by a presidential decree as director-general of SSTV, Khamis previously served as security advisor in the country’s interior ministry.
However, he fell out with Lueth barely one month after his new appointment.
The two officials exchanged accusations and counter-accusations in which the minister issued an order in November 2014 transferring Khamis from SSTV to the headquarters of the ministry, a move the latter rejected.
He accused the minister of a politically-motivated act, saying the constitutional post holder didn’t want programmes showing members of the Nuer ethnic group on SSTV.
Khamis further accused Lueth, who is a member of the government’s negotiating team, of corruption, alleging that he had been involved in financial malpractice for personal gain.
(ST)
