SPLM leaders meet in South Africa for intraparty dialogue
May 8, 2015 (JUBA) – Three factions of South Sudan’s governing party of the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement (SPLM) are due to meet in Pretoria, South Africa, at an invitation of the African National Congress (ANC) to follow-up on reunification agreement signed four months ago in Arusha, Tanzania.
Jemma Nunu Kumba, minister of electricity and dams, is heading the SPLM-Juba faction. Information minister Michael Makuei Lueth said the meeting was a follow-up to implement the agreed principles in the Arusha deal.
“It is not a new initiative, but a follow-up on the Arusha discussion, so the meeting will kick off soon,” Lueth told reporters in Juba on Friday.
The Arusha agreement has not fully been implemented including the agreement to reinstate rebel officials led by former vice president and first deputy chairman of SPLM, Riek Machar, and others including former detainees led by former party’s secretary general, Pagan Amum.
Although president Salva Kiir has offered an amnesty to former political detainees, he has not reinstated them to previous positions in the party as required by the deal.
A follow-up was supposed to be held in Juba but failed to materialize. Even if an intraparty deal is sealed it will however depend on signing of a peace agreement in Addis Ababa for its full implementation.
The parties are yet to agree on a set of reforms in the party and its future leadership. Conflict erupted in mid-December 2013 when debates over reforms turned violent amidst declaration by some senior leaders to contest for the chairmanship of the party.
A date is not yet fixed for the both processes to take place in Pretoria and Addis Ababa.
(ST)