Africa-Press – South-Sudan. South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit has derided the failure of the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) party to deliver services to the people of South Sudan since coming to power in 2005, saying failure to deliver on promises made during the liberation struggle is shameful.
Kiir who doubles as the Chairman of the SPLM party was speaking at the SPLM House on Wednesday in Juba during the swearing ceremony of the group’s acting secretary-general, Peter Lam Both, who was nominated to replace now speaker of parliament Jemma Nunu Kumba last month as Secretary-General.
“The movement [SPLM] is the people’s choice and if we weren’t the people’s choice, we would have not come this far from 1983 up to 2005. The people of South Sudan stood with us and by our side, but what have we done to the people? We are supposed to pay them back, we owe them,” Kiir said.
He urged end to internal power wrangling within the SPLM party which he said is a shameful because the party won’t be able to deliver on promises the group made to the people of South Sudan during the liberation struggle and further urged the leaders of the group to unity to avoid further conflicts in the country.
“How and when are we going to pay them back if we are fighting among ourselves? If we continue to fight one another, we will not be able to pay them back, this is shameful on us. We are the men and women who are heroes and heroines of this country because we fought until we brought independence of South Sudan, but by fighting among ourselves,” he said.
“We have disappointed our people. Let us accept one another and be children of one husband and one wife,” he added.
