South Sudanese communities visit Machar’s residence
June 12, 2016 (JUBA) – The past five weeks have witnessed jubilations at Jebel Kujur, an area about 6 km west of the center of the South Sudanese national capital, Juba, as hundreds or thousands of various community members and leaders have been visiting the First Vice President, Riek Machar, at his makeshift residence to congratulate him on his position to spearhead needed reforms in the country.
Machar, according to the August 2015 peace agreement, is tasked to initiate reforms in various sectors and coordinate and supervise the implementation of the peace deal to end 21 months of the civil war.
The communities ranging from Mundari, Moro, Greater Bahr el Ghazal, Greater Bor and Nuer, Anyuak, among others have been storming the residence, dancing or meeting the country’s second powerful politician.
The latest to visit the First Vice President on Saturday is the Anyuak community of Pochalla county in Jonglei state.
But opposition leader’s media official blamed the state-owned media instruments, such as the South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation (SSBC), for not broadcasting such important interactions between the country’s second powerful leader and the communities.
“There have been positive interactions or peace rallies going on with various South Sudanese communities at Jebel, the residence of the First Vice President. But these have not been broadcasted on the national TV. It seems somebody in authority is not happy about the interactions,” James Gatdet Dak, told Sudan Tribune on Sunday.
For instance, he said, on Sunday Machar had an interaction with the Anyuak community, which broadcasted, would further add to the confidence among the populations that spirit of peace and reconciliation was in progress.
Dak explained that used to personally take the video clips of the First Vice President to the South Sudan TV in Juba containing the public interactions with different communities who visited him at Jebel Kujur, but these were not played.
However, earlier, an official of the SSBC who declined to be named admitted that they didn’t broadcast many of the video clips coming from the office of the First Vice President, arguing that this was because of the “poor quality of the pictures” taken by the cameraman in that office.
He told Eye Radio that it would be “unprofessional” to play such poor quality pictures on the national TV.
When asked about the TV official’s argument on poor quality of video clips from Machar’s office, James Gatdet Dak responded that it was “strange” that some of the pictures produced by the same camera, particularly on some official meetings were broadcasted on the TV while others on community interactions or in churches were rejected for the alleged poor quality.
He also said “generally” it would be unfair to think that the pictures broadcasted on South Sudan TV carry the same quality with the most TV stations in the region, saying generally poor quality of pictures or TV programs were “obvious” and should be understood due to lack of the right equipment and the needed personnel and their services.
“The management should understand the fact that generally the TV produces poor pictures and programs due to many factors. It shouldn’t therefore be used as an excuse to target particular pictures,” he added.
The TV management is supervised by the ministry of information, which is currently headed by Minister Michael Makuei Lueth and deputized by Akol Paul Kordit. The two men are from President Salva Kiir’s faction in the new cabinet of the transitional government of national unity (TGoNU).
(ST)