Gen. Salva Mathok rejects court ruling evicting him from hotels

JUBA – South Sudan lawmaker and former deputy minister of interior General Salva Mathok Gengdit has rejected an order by a Juba court on Wednesday that would evict him from Rock City Hotel and Jebel Lodge after having managed the businesses for over five years without sending money to the owner who entrusted him with managing the properties.

On Wednesday, a Juba court ruled in favor of Solomon Chaplain, the owner of Rock City Hotel and Jebel Lodge, and ordered General Mathok to vacate the properties and to also pay money spent during legal procedures.

In a statement, Gen. Mathok rejected the ruling and said he is not occupying the properties illegally.

“The decision passed by judge Moujahid Abdella Akol on the case of Rock City between me and Mr Solomon Chaplain Lui is rejected by me. I didn’t occupy Rock City illegally; we have signed documents regarding the businesses in Jebel Lodge and the Rock City,” General Mathok said in a statement extended to Sudans Post.

“On August 11^th 2016, we signed a power of attorney authenticated by all Ugandans legal institutions and South Sudan for us to take care of his all assets across South Sudan. We have also signed official mandate powers of appointment letter 5th of August 2016 as a partners to recover rent and arrears from Mr Karl Wipfler and Mr Amulya Berhera who occupied Jebel Lodge and Rock City by then during the period of Mr Solomon Chaplain Lui,” he added.

Mathok said Solomon’s properties would have been taken by the country’s National Security Service after he was declared a rebel by the authorities, but he helped the houses not to be taken by the service as he convinced them that he was a shareholder.

“National Security appeared with the claim that Rock City is one of the attached properties under a decree of H.E President Salva Kiir Mayardit attaching all properties for those who rebelled against the Government to National Security. And we were told that Mr Solomon is a rebel and he is also accused of the money laundering. We discovered that this was the reason Solomon called us in Kampala and said that there is a big business he is running in Kampala, so, he trusted us to run his business in the Republic of South Sudan,” the statement said.

“We used the documents we signed with Solomon to convince the National Security that we are partners of the business (Jebel Lodge and Rock City) with Mr. Champlain. So, National Security released the Rock City Compound to us to run the business by recognizing the papers we signed with Mr. Solomon,” he added.