Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The South Sudanese should be applauded for achieving a critical milestone in the implementation of Chapter Two on Security Arrangements by unifying the command structure. The announcement of the nominees to the unified command ranks and the subsequent swearing-in of some of the nominees last week implies that the country is on a positive path to getting this chapter done and over the line. Nonetheless, they were predominantly men. Hence, this triggered discord from a section of women who perceived the selection to be flouting the affirmative action clause advocating for women’s inclusion in top cadres of leadership to the tune of 35 per cent.
The Chairperson of the Women’s Bloc of South Sudan, Amer Deng, told this newspaper on Friday that the decision to sideline women was a disappointing one.
Amer said: “We know that those who are engaged in high levels of the security sector are predominantly men, but some of them are getting promoted every now and then. So, there will be no difference if they promote women who are capable and who are already in the security sector.’’
“I’m not happy at all with the command structure because there is no justification for the people that they have brought into the command structure to be more qualified than any woman who is already in the armed forces. “The women there are qualified, so there is nothing that can justify that the reason why women are not there is that they are not qualified,” she added.
“We need the government to fully implement the other chapters and compensate for the space that they have taken 100 per cent. If, like now, they have taken from the security sector, then it has to be compensated from the other sectors. When there is reshuffling, they should consider it even if women become 60 or 70 per cent in other areas of the public sector,’’ she appealed.
The peace partners have their own reasons for determining the merit of the appointees picked for the particular ranks. But on the other hand, there is a need to heed the pleas of women, particularly on the issue of meeting the 35 per cent quota on gender representation. Why is this significant? South Sudan is a progressive system that tries to be on par with other developing or developed countries. These are countries that have embraced all-inclusiveness when it comes to gender representation. This means that the clamour for meeting the affirmative action threshold should not be viewed as retrogressive, but should be seen as positive aggression to better South Sudan society. Thus, the government ought to strive to listen to the grievances of women.
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