Africa-Press – South-Sudan. South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit was wrong and unethical when he removed Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Beatrice Khamisa Wani while on a diplomatic mission to the Arab Republic of Egypt, former minister of higher education Adwok Nyaba has said.
Kiir in a Republican Decree readout on the state-owned South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation (SSBC) on Thursday removed Mrs. Khamisa while on a diplomatic mission to Egypt, replacing him with Mayiik Ayii Deng, the former presidential affairs minister who was fired in 2020 following a scandal surrounding the Juba-Bahr el Ghazal highway construction.
Khamisa was appointed in March last year following the formation of the Reconstituted Transitional Government of National Unity (R-TGONU) provided for in the revitalized peace agreement which witnessed the appointment of several opposition officials representing several signatories of the revitalized peace agreement into the government.
However, Nyaba who is a staunch critic of President Salva Kiir, said President Salva Kiir Mayardit was wrong to remove Khamisa, who was the second female South Sudanese politician to serve the position, suggesting that he could have waited until Khamisa return from Egypt where she is on an official visit.
“Yes, its president’s prerogative to appoint or disappoint. It was wrong and unethical to disappoint the minister of Foreign Affairs while on official duty in Cairo. The announcement could have waited until she came back to Juba,” Nyaba who was also a member of the SPLM-IO led by First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny, wrote on Facebook.
The dismissal of Khamisa has also been criticized by activists as a violating of the 2018 peace agreement because the replacement was not a woman. The peace deal provides for the allocation of 35% of positions at all levels of government to women, something which has not been respected by the SPLM and some other signatories to the agreement.
