South Sudan president sacks head of cooperative bank
April 12, 2016 (JUBA) – South Sudan President, Salva Kiir, has issued a republican order sacking the head of cooperative bank. The move has confirmed speculations that he was uncomfortable with the performance of the institution headed by the wife of Pagan Amum, one of his political rivals and a former secretary general of the ruling party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).
No accompanying explanation was made to justify the cause for change.
Presidential spokesperson, Ateny Wek Ateny, on Tuesday described the change as part of normal administrative practice intended to provide better services by the government to the citizens.
Deng’s husband, Amum, formed a separate faction known as former detainees after political differences in 2013 over reforms and internal democracy escalated into armed confrontation, resulting to his arrest and detention before he was released months later with other colleagues.
The detainees were allowed to go to neighbouring Kenya where they spent more than one year participating in peace talks and traveling around the region and outside Africa, soliciting helps to consolidate efforts to reunify the party and end conflict in the country.
The efforts led to the signing of the reunification agreement before the government and the main armed opposition under the leadership of the former vice president, Riek Machar, signed the peace deal in August 2015.
Although most of the former detainees have returned to Juba, Amum decided to take leave and went to the United States where his family members reside after he was criticized by the government for signing the peace deal with which the government had expressed reservations.
His wife who was working as the head of cooperative bank joined him, prompting government supporters to claim she was not performing and cannot run the institution through proxy.
She also began expressing views in various media outlets which government supporters interpreted to mean criticism against the system in which she served and would therefore be appropriate for her to either quit the job to join the dissident group led by her husband or stop being critical.
(ST)