Gen. Salva Mathok says poor management at Nilepet fueling insecurity

JUBA – South Sudan Member of Parliament and former deputy minister of interior General Salva Mathok Gengdit has derided the poor management at the state-owned oil firm Nile Petroleum Corporation (Nilepet) saying it is causing the rampant insecurity in the world’s youngest country.

“Since the establishment of NILEPET, administration of this body never got real people to manage it. There has been no strategy to put this issue of fuel shortage to a halt,” the former senior government official said in an interview with the Juba Echo.

Gen. Mathok further told the online publication that the ongoing mismanagement could lead to another war apart from the one that has just been ended with the signing of the revitalized peace agreement.

“This is not what the country wants again, another war which may keep peeling into war after war. It will destroy this nation,” Mathok added.

Fuel shortage

South Sudanese fuel users have recently reported that most petrol stations across the country and the capital Juba have dried up as truckers importing fuel from neighboring countries have staged strike at the border between South Sudan, Ugandan and Kenya owing to insecurity.

Currently, one litre of fuel is sold at 1500 south Sudanese Pound and is only available in the black market.

Analysts attribute the shortages and price increase to truck drivers’ persistent inability to travel to Juba City from the Elegu border station.

South Sudan imports up to 40 million liters (10.6 million gallons) of petrol from Kenya every month.

“These strategies would help solve the issue of fuel crisis in this country but it has never been done by NILEPET because it has never got good people to manage it. They are problems of saboteurs and now it’s being politicized by detractors,” Mathok said.

“It’s very strange and very funny from those people who let this comes out of their mouth. This is a challenge and it’s an insult to the country, an insult to the security actors in the country. We are capable of securing the roads. The problem in this country is that everything is politicized. I am just advising our people that this is a simple thing and will be resolved,” he added.