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YEI( 3 Jan)- The Deputy Governor (DG) of Central Equatoria State (CES), Southern Sudan, who is also the Minister of Local Government and Law Enforcement, Henry Danga Stepano has inaugurated Mukaya Payam, Lainya County, as he raised the flag of the New Sudan at the payam office December 15, 2007.
The raising of the flag and the posting of an administrator to the area marks the beginning of a real government administration of the village for the first time in history. Mukaya has rich virgin land but bad roads and poor services for lack of effective administration.
Mukaya Payam is the last payam to be inaugurated in Lainya County. The Governor of Central Equatoria State Maj. Gen. Clement Wani Konga could not inaugurate it on January 25, 2007 due to ill-preparedness by the then payam administration.
In his inaugural speech, Stepano told the people of Mukaya and the invited guests that the raising of the flag in Mukaya was an indication of seriousness on the part of the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) and the Central Equatoria State in development which must necessarily begin at the grassroots level.
The inauguration of the payam was the beginning of effective decentralization and the taking of towns with their developments to the villages, he said.
Commenting on the poor roads and services in Mukaya, Stepano attributed them to the fact that GOSS has not provided CES with development budget for the last two years. The funds the latter used to get from the former were only meant for salaries. He also said Mukaya failed to enjoy the fruits of development because there is no single highway passing through it.
“As they follow the road map of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), Khartoum is yet to do the best to help the situation,” he added.
The DG also said that one of the things which retarded development was the fact that when the Sudan People's Liberation Army/ Movement (SPLA/M) came to power it had to waste time battling with structural issues to face out the southern coordinating council, the body running the southern Sudan before the attainment of peace on January 9, 2005.
After settling the issue of the administration of the south, came another hurdle, salary payments. Although CES has 19,000 workers, a big working force which cannot be compared with those of the other 9 southern states, GOSS provides salaries for only 5,000 workers, a situation which made CES to look for ways and means to pay the salaries of the remaining 14,000 workers at the expense of doing development.
Employment problems About those whose names have not appeared in the government pay list, Stepano said there is a clique within the system in Juba that frustrates good work. He said whenever they prepare an employment list for the high authorities in Juba suggesting who should be what, the list disappears. One of the things they had in their plan was that “each person from SPLA controlled areas be paid 3 months salary to help them resettle, but the document also disappeared.”
Assuring the people of Mukaya and the whole CES of a better future, the DG requested that they should be given time, for they had found ways of handling the aforementioned difficulties.
In another development, Stepano told the chiefs that plans had been made to organize the workforce for effective service. He said soon all chiefs and their men and women would be paid salaries, uniforms given; and depending on the approval of the Governor of CES Maj. Gen. Konga, possibly supply mobile telephones to chiefs to facilitate and ease communication between the leadership in Juba and the village. .
Census and population movement
On the issue of census, the DG advised the chiefs to be prepared to help in the forthcoming census since development and the needed services they yearn for would be carried out in accordance with the number of people in each payam.
He also told the citizens of Mukaya that soon the government and the traditional leadership will together sit down to think of how the payam could impose taxes on goods and services within it, to enrich it and Lainya county for the service and benefit of all.
Concerning the coming home of the displaced persons and refugees, Stepano said CES has been working hard to bring everybody home. Hence, the state had managed to repatriate 18,000 persons from Khartoum by barges and 3,000 by air. He also said that though repatriation is an ongoing programme, they had to stop it due to heavy rains that affected the programme logistically.
Among those who came home were the 1,140 persons whom the state managed to have released from Khartoum prisons. The number released comprised 200 men, 800 women and 140 children who went to prison not because they were criminals, but simply because they were too young to be separated from their mothers.
Most of the prisoners released found their way into prisons because of their involvement in either selling or drinking of alcoholic drinks, a practise banned by Islamic law in Khartoum.
Although CES persuaded Khartoum to release the dealers of alcoholic drinks, the DG said it doesn't mean the state encourages drunkards to booze. To confirm this as a starting step, he ordered the Commissioner of Lainya County Col. Vincent Kujo Lobung Kwejeba and the authorities of Yei county to stop the selling of all alcoholic drinks being sold in packets, for they are more destructive to youth than the other drinks.
The DG also expressed sadness when he saw some Mukaya youth idling as they play cards and possibly drinking alcohol along the road.
To increase productivity and population in Mukaya, the DG advised the audience to work hard in the area of agriculture and business.
Development activities
Addressing the problem of poor roads in Mukaya, Stepano said CES had agreed with two companies; the Green Mountain and the Global International to start working on the construction of roads in Mukaya including the building of Dimu - 1 - Soka bridge across the Yei River to connect Mukaya road with Yei - Maridi road.
The companies are also expected to build a guesthouse for the payam and a house for the chief. Other roads mentioned as part of the plan are; Limbe - Kajokeji and Lo'bonok road in southern Bari. He also said plans were underway to send a team of surveyors to the area to demarcate plots for better services.
Border friction
Talking about the existing border friction with Yei county, the DG urged the people of Mukaya to be more loving and open to others, for love and openness are keys to development. He said even if pecks are put to mark the border line between Yei and Mukaya which is part of Lainya county, it is nothing other than an administrative border that will only help in tax collection and putting an end to administrators not to overstep their boundaries when performing administrative functions.
Putting a border between Yei and Mukaya doesn't mean fencing off the two. It doesn't mean no crossing to the other side, for the fact is that Yei is expanding towards Mukaya. Hence, before parts of Mukaya become a city, Mukaya people should positively be prepared for the change.
Since Lainya county to which Mukaya belongs is part of the greater Yei which comprises; Lainya, Yei, Morobo and Kajokeji, the DG said he doesn't understand why there should be a problem between Yei and Lainya. He said “if a fence is put between Mukaya/ Pojulu and Yei/ kakwa, what about the relationship created between the two through inter-marriages? How will the uncles on both sides expect to behave after reaching the border?”
Sexual abuse
Commenting on the play performed by Mukaya women in which they showed how some members of the SPLA harassed and abused them sexually during the war in the name of liberation which the women claimed they are yet to enjoy its fruits in full, Stepano apologized to the women for all the wrongs they underwent during the liberation struggle. He attributed the negative behaviour of the dramatized SPLA to wrong orientation that suggested that they should use their guns to get whatever they desired.
Although there are people who have negative stories to tell about the SPLA, the DG said today's SPLA is more disciplined than ever before, for GOSS has dismissed the mannerless and those left have been trained to act professionally.
SPLM/NCP dispute
On the temporary withdrawal of the SPLM ministers and advisors from the Government of National Unity (GONU) the DG told the public that the problem was triggered by Khartoum that wanted to renegotiate the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) attained on January 9, 2005.
The other problem he mentioned was Khartoum's overstepping of southern Sudan northern border as an attempt to engulf southern oil fields in addition to lack of transparency in the Sudanese oil business which Khartoum and Juba had agreed to share as it is on record.
In spite of the outlined hurdles, however, Stepano indicated that there are positive talks going on between the National Congress Party (NCP) and the SPLM, the parties that brought about the CPA to remedy the situation.
Hence, he assured the public that though the political sphere looks shaky, nobody should think that there is going to be another escalation of war in the country, for the SPLM is not for it. But he warned that whoever provokes the SPLA/ M which is now more powerful than ever before is committing suicide.
Service delivery
Talking about poor services which the people of Mukaya complained about, the DG said he was going to order all ministers to visit all payams for better results. As for training, he said the Government has made arrangements with the neighbouring Uganda to train police and prison guards. Kenya was also mentioned to have shown interest to train some staff for the state.This in addition to training of nurses in Juba and Yei.
In a related development, the DG urged Zoa, the only NGO operating in Mukaya to train nurses for the future. In his special message to the NGOs operating in CES through Zoa, the NGO providing Mukaya with medical services, he said if CES had not been serious in working with the NGOs, it is not going to continue in the same fashion.
“What CES needs are big and reasonable programmes and activities not building of small rooms that organizations give the name health centres,” Danga said. He suggested that if NGOs have difficulties in convincing their back donors to do the best, “let the donors be persuaded to come to the field to see and hear from those in need.”
In another development, however, Stepano said CES has completed plans to build the main prisons in Terekeka, Lainya, Yei, Morobo and Kajokeji county to ease congestion in Juba central prison.
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