Angelina’s dismissal dominates RJMEC plenary meeting as parties hold their ground
The ouster of Angelina Teny and the swapping of the ministries of defence and veteran affairs with those of interior between major peace parties dominated the RJMEC plenary on Thursday as both SPLM and SPLM-IO leaders held their ground.
The Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC)’s 30th monthly sitting on Thursday experienced a hot debate as the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO) and SPLM-IG continued to disagree over Angelina’s dismissal.
It all started when Sandra Malual, a senior member of SPLM-IO in the Bureau and the party’s representative in RJMEC, rejected the report, pointing out that there was pending agreement over the changes made by President Salva Kiir in March 2023.
Malual said there was no agreement reached between President Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar, and till now, there has been no resolution.
“I am wondering what happened in regard to this point because, as a member of the SPLM-IO and member of the political bureau in the SPLM-IO, I have not come across the fact that Kiir and Machar agreed on the dismissal of Angelina, and we (the SPLM-IO) were not officially informed that there is an agreement in regards to this,” she said.
Malual faulted the SPLM-IG for appointing the defence minister when the deadlock was not resolved, arguing the actions amounted to continued violations.
“It is not good to document a verbal report from an individual and call it an agreement,” she said.
She rejected the part of the minutes of the meeting that claimed that the parties agreed on the matter.
“We are not going to pass these minutes, including this number paragraph (the part that stated that Kiir and Machar agreed over Angelina’s dismissal and swapping of ministries),” she said.
But Dr. Martin Elia Lomuro, minister of cabinet affairs and also representative of ITGoNU to RJMEC, said the dismissal of Angelina Teny and the swapping of the two ministries were done deals that do not require deliberations.
Lomuro added that this was solved at the level of the presidency.
“The issue of swapping is a matter that has been dealt with by the presidency and between the parties to the peace agreement, and so the plenary was reinforcing the need to appoint; we are not discussing swapping; it is a done deal,” Lomuro said.
He claimed that the topic had already been discussed during the previous meeting, arguing that it was not rejected by the members of the SPLM-IO that were present at that time.
The Interim Chairperson of RJMEC, Maj Gen rtd Charles Gituai, echoed Lomuro’s sentiments that the matter was discussed in the previous meeting and did not receive rejection by the members.
He added that any topic brought to the floor and not rejected is termed as something agreed upon.
“It was brought by a government representative, and there was no opposition from the SPLM-IO present in the plenary meeting on the 29th,” Gituai said.
“As long as there is no rejection of any report, then take it as agreed by the floor of the house,” he added.
He added that RJMEC derived its report from the government and the parties, particularly where parties reached a consensus.
“When we circulated the resolution here for people to comment, the party representative from SPLM-IO did not comment to change these in the resolution draft, and that is how it came here,” he said.
But for Nicholas Haysom, Special Representativeof the UN Secretary-General and head of UNMISS, there have been different views on whether the parties resolved the deadlock or not.
“After three months, there have been divergent views on whether the deadlock that emerged as a result of the removal of the Defence and Interior Ministers and the subsequent swapping of the same portfolios has been resolved,” Haysom said.
He called for the top leadership and parties to resolve the pending points and work together.
“We encourage the presidency and the parties to address the remaining sticking points,” he said.
On March 3, President Kiir fired the Ministers of Defence and Interior and swapped the two ministries between the SPLM and the SPLM-IO.
However, Machar’s SPLM-IO protested and called for the reinstatement of Defence Minister Angelina Teny, Machar’s wife, saying the dismissal and swapping of ministries is a violation of the peace agreement.
This resulted in a planned meeting between the two leaders having to be postponed twice.
