PCCA questions legitimacy of Kiir-Machar’s unity government

JUBA – South Sudan’s civil rights movement, People’s Coalition for Civil Action (PCCA), has said that the legitimacy of the country’s Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity (R-TGONU) led by President Salva Kiir Mayardit and First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar “is increasingly questionable”.

The peace agreement was signed in September 2018 and the unity government was expected to be in place by May 2019, but disagreements started as soon as it was signed over its implementation, resulting in delays that have pushed the formation of the unity government to February 2020, ten months late than expected.

But two years into the transitional government’s formation, the parties have remained largely in chapter one with important provisions such as the security arrangements and repatriation of refugees and IDPs being a sticking point as parties cite lacks of resources to carry out these tasks.

In a statement on Friday, the PCCA said the unity government has failed to function as expected under the terms of the revitalized peace agreement with the legitimacy of the Kiir-Machar led unity government becoming increasingly questionable pointing to growing lack of security given recent spike in communal violence.

“Most importantly, the government has failed miserably to function cohesively, and it has not implemented the stymied R-ARCSS, the basis of its existence. The legitimacy of the R-TGONU, both in practical and normative terms, is increasingly questionable,” the PCCA statement reads in part.

“Recent communal violence and the total breakdown of law and order and growing incidents of protests, suggest that most of the South Sudanese people do not perceive RTGONU as a legitimate authority,” the statement added.

The group said President Salva Kiir Mayardit is likely to request the parliament for the extension of the transitional period, something the group said will trigger mass protests and civil disobedience in the country.

“More specifically, the authority and power of President Kiir is increasingly diminishing. He is likely going to request his hand-picked parliament and the guarantors of the failed R-ARCSS to extend the transitional period, and this will most likely be a trigger point for mass protests and civil disobedience,” the statement added.

It said “the people of South Sudan, the region, and the international community have been all witnesses to, and are frustrated with, the lack of implementation of R-ARCSS. This agreement has been a failure by every measure in terms of what it was intended to achieve. The pledge by the parties to lay the foundation for a united, peaceful, and prosperous society based on justice, equality, respect for human rights and the rule of law, has been meaningless as it was never serious.”

The group went on to accuse President Kiir of having “flatly refused to implement the security arrangements and so South Sudan still has multiple commander in chiefs and as many chiefs of staff. The transitional justice envisioned has not been given a chance; the peace and security it intended to provide remain a distant dream.”

“The reforms called for in the defunct R-ARCSS have been choked, and circumvented. The people of South Sudan are hungry, insecure, and bitterly divided still. There is hardly anything that resembles normalcy in people’s lives. They have lost their purchasing power and their ability to farm.”