South Sudan govt voices strong reservations over revised Entebbe proposal

July 16, 2018 (JUBA) – The South Sudanese government voiced strong reservations on the revised Entebbe Proposal on the outstanding issues of governance and blamed the mediation for making new propositions instead of developing the agreed provisions.

The revised version of Entebbe Proposal creates a new vice-president for the South Sudanese Opposition Alliance and reduced the government members to 35 ministers.

The government spokesperson and Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth said they received the new draft on the governance and sent it to the leadership in Juba to respond to it. However, he added that document “seems not to be in place”.

“The mediation has to stick to the provisions of the agreement instead of dismissing or coming up with new propositions that have never been touched before, and amending provisions which were already agreed,” Lueth said.

The minister who was speaking from Khartoum to the South Sudan TV seemed as he was surprised by the content of the new draft. Also, for the first time, he criticized the mediation.

“The way the document is written appears as if there is no government in South Sudan,” he said.

After what he repeated that the decision will be taken by the president “but, I really doubt it will be signed tomorrow,” he stressed.

(ST)