Talks on states hit dead end as Parties fail to reach consensus

February 6, 2020 Newsbeat

February 6th, 2020 (SSNN)— Consultation meetings aimed at resolving the issue surrounding the number of states and their boundaries have again reached a dead end as the government and the opposition failed to reach an agreement.

Speaking to the media Thursday after the meeting, South African Deputy President David Mabuza said that the issue has become challenging and that the IGAD and the African Union will be consulted on the matter and the way forward.

“We must consult IGAD, we must consult the AU. Fortunately, they have got a summit this weekend, so we are going to table the proposal and beyond that we come back and give them the feedback,” said David Mabuza, South African Deputy President.

For his part, South Sudan’s Minister of Information, who also doubles up as the government’s spokesperson, Michael Makuei Lueth said that the opposition is still calling for an extension of the Pre-transitional Period, however the government opposes this move given that the citizens are tired of repeated extensions.

“The opposition in a way or the other they are demanding further extension but we are saying no more extension. The people of South Sudan are fed up of extensions, so we need to establish the transitional government and then continue with the consultation process,” said Makuei.

“The transitional unity government will be declared on February 21 and will take oath on 22 February,” he stressed.

Henry Odwar, deputy head of the SPLM-IO said that if the issue of the number of states is not settled well, then the SPLM-IO will not be part of the next unity government considering that the same scenario happened in 2016.

“Without the outstanding issues being resolved, the SPLM-IO will not come into government because we walked through this path in 2016,” he said.

Since 2019, the government and the opposition have been trying to resolve the issue of the states, but no solution has been found.

Late last year, the South African Vice President David Mabuza proposed an alternative resolution approach, Arbitration Mechanism, to try to address stalemate over the number of states and their internal borders, but the proposal faces opposition from other opposition groups.