The Consortium’s position on ‘CIRCULATED’ KAMPALA PROPOSAL
ON ‘THE AGREEMENT ON OUTSTANDING ISSUES OF RESPONSIBILITY SHARING/GOVERNANCE’
Khartoum, Sudan
July 8th, 2018(Nyamilepedia) — We the members of the Consortium reject the widely circulated Kampala proposal on governance which has been alleged to be of the following summary:
- Presidency: President, First Vice-President, maintaining the incumbent 2 Vice-Presidents and another Vice-President to be a woman from other Political Opposition Groups.
- Cabinet that is proposed to be 45.
- Members of Transitional National Legislature to be 550.
- States which have been proposed to remain 32.
SUMMARY OF THE SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES OF THE PREVIOUS DOCUMENT
ARTICLE 1: PRESIDENCY
- President: Salva Kiir Mayardit.
- First Vice-President: Dr Riek Machar Teny-Dhurgon.
- Current TGoNU to nominate a Vice-President.
- ALL other Opposition parties to nominate the Third Vice-President.
- That either the TGoNU nominated Vice-President or Opposition nominated Vice-President to be a woman.
- In addition to collegial decision-making and responsibility sharing, the powers and functions of the above offices shall be delineated or based on the contents of the 2015 Peace Agreement.
The First Vice-President and other two shall respectively oversee Cabinet Clusters as follows:
- First Vice-President: Governance Cluster.
- Vice-President: Economic Cluster.
- Third Vice-President: Services Delivery Cluster.
ARTICLE 2: REVITALISED the would-be-TGoNU: 30 Ministries within 2015 ARCISS
- Current TGoNU: 17
- SPLM/A-IO: 8
- All other Opposition groups: 5
- Deputy Ministers: 9 and three of whom must be women
- No appointment of any Minister or Deputy-Minister during the Transitional Period.
Article 3 Transitional Legislature: 440 members constituted of both the Transitional Legislative Assembly (TNLA) and Council of States(CoS) and these have been distributed as follows:
TNLA MEMBERSHIP ALLOCATION:
- Current TGoNU: 266 members
- SPLM/A-IO: 106 Members
- SSOA: 46 Members(SSOA: South Sudan Opposition Alliance).
- OPP: 17 Members(OPP: Other Political Parties).
- FDs: 5 Members.
CoS MEMBERSHIP ALLOCATION: 52 MEMBERS
- Current TGoNU: 28 members
- SPLM/A-IO: 14 Members
- SSOA: 5 Members(SSOA: South Sudan Opposition Alliance).
- OPP: 3 Members(OPP: Other Political Parties).
- FDs: 2 Members.
- That both the current TNLA and CoS shall be dissolved by August as the new 440 Members replace them.
ARTICLE 4: 21 STATES
These are to be temporary governance structures to constitute South Sudan pending the work of an Inclusive Boundaries Commission which will be reflected into the new Constitution.
ARTICLE 5(THIS WAS ERRED AS NUMBER 6 ON THE DOCUMENT): GENERAL PROVISIONS
SUPREMACY OF THE NEW AGREEMENT
It states that this Agreement shall prevail in case there are provisions in 2015 peace Agreement and the recent ‘Revised BRIGDING PROPOSAL’ which are inconsistent with it.
OUR SUBMITTED POSITION WHICH WE MAINTAIN
WE ENTIRELY REJECT THE CIRCULATED KAMPALA PROPOSAL AS AGAINST THE INTEREST OF THE SUFFERING SOUHH SUDANESE PEOPLE. WE REMAIN STUCK TO THE PREVIOUS POSITION WHICH WE SUBMITTED TO THE MEDIATION TEAM AS BELOW WHICH IS READ TOGETHER WITH THE PREVIOUS PROPOSAL ON GOVERNANCE RELEASED IN KHARTOUM BY THE MEDIATION TEAM, SUMMARY OF WHICH WE PROVIDED ABOVE:
Article 1: Presidency
- a, b, c and d, we agree with this.
Additions
Article 1.1.(e) Vice-President designated to be a woman
We propose that the Vice-President designated to be a woman, should be appointed by the incumbent TGoNU since the incumbent TGoNU have the President and the Speaker which are key high government positions leading the two arms of government.
Article 1.2. Decision making
We agree with this proposal of collegial decision and we add that;
‘No member of the Presidency including the President or First Vice-President should ever take unilateral decision on matters affecting South Sudan without the agreement or consent of the other members of the Presidency and such a decision taken in contravention of this provision, will remain ineffective and invalid”
Article 1.3. we agree.
Article 2: The Revitalised TGoNU
We agree to article 2(2.1. to 2.6) but add that we that there shall be a Minister
Article 3: We agree to 2.1. to 2.6 but we add the following after 2.6. as 2.7
REPLACEMENT OF A MINISTER OR DEPUTY MINISTER
2.7. In the event of a vacancy occurring for either Minister or Deputy-Minister during the Transitional Period, a replacement will be done by the respective party or parties in accordance with the provisions of ARCISS governing such an eventuality.
Article 3 Transitional Legislature: 440 members constituted of both the Transitional Legislative Assembly (TNLA) and Council of States(CoS).
3.1. is okay
3.2. is okay; the dissolution of Parliament is something useful because it is at least a slight departure from the status quo. It will be the price which the members of Parliament should at least pay for peace and for their long stay without citizens’ mandate as some were elected and appointed since 2010 in the United Sudan and without further elections. This will stop the members continued violations of the Constitution where they extend their term every time it comes to an end. This is against the citizens’ will. It is a good recommendation to dissolve it.
3.3. It is okay as bringing back peace after such bitter war, isn’t simple. Sacrifices have to be made but if the percentage is on the basis of 55% for TGoNU, 25% for SPLM/A-IO and 20% for other political opposition parties, then the allocations of TLNA shall be as follows:
- Current TGoNU: 243 members(55%)
- SPLM/A-IO: 108 Members(25%)
- SSOA: 55 Members(SSOA: South Sudan Opposition Alliance).
- OPP: 24 Members(OPP: Other Political Parties).
- FDs: 10 Members.
- Apart from SPLM/A-IO, the 20% of all Opposition is 89 Members of Parliament.
- The fact that Ministers have been reduced to ARCISS provision of 30 in number from previously proposed 42 is something good.
- For issue of political and minority accommodation to reflect diversity of South Sudanese people, the TNLA and other Commissions, shall be the institutions for that political accommodation and not elastic cabinet that drains minute resources.
NEW PROPOSALS
3.3(A) The incumbent TGoNU and SPLM/A-IO, from their allocated ratio, each should bring two Members of Parliament to represent the following categories:
- Person with disability
- Youth
3.3(B) There shall be four members of Parliament in all to represent youth and persons with disability and with two of each of the four should be allocated to both TNLA and Council of States to cater for such interests groups.
Article 4: States of South Sudan as 21 states
- We agree with this proposal of 21 states. However, in the event of any party refusing this proposal of 21 states, we alternatively recommend the following:
- Reverting to 10 states as in ARCISS or
- Taking the 79 counties as basis of governance structures to constitute South Sudan or
- Resorting to the same 79 counties to be transformed into states.
THE RATIONALE OF 10 OR 21 STATES OR 79 COUNTIES
All these have fixed boundaries which will help resolve major land issues which have been messed up under the 32 states.
4.2. Formation of an Inclusive Boundaries Commission(IBC)
The mandate of the IBC should not be narrowed down to only dealing with the states borders but it must have both external and international mandate to cater for eventualities.
4.3. The composition of the IBC as proposed to be 15 persons is fine but we add the following proposals.
NEW PROPOSALS:
4.3(A) The IBC shall constitute of 16 persons three of whom shall be experts from international community who will act as chair, deputy Secretary and database officer.
4.3(B) The three foreigners in the IBC shall not vote in deciding matters in the event consensus fails on simple matters.
4.3(C) Decisions on serious matters shall be reached by consensus those members eligible to vote.
4.3(D) The remaining 13 persons shall be South Sudanese and two of whom, must be veteran civil society leaders having technical expertise to sit on the IBC.
4.3( E) The IBC shall be established by an ACT OF PARLIAMENT not more than two months on the commencement of the Transitional Period.
4.3(F) No IGAD country member shall sit on the IBC and in the event of South Sudan getting involved in any dispute over borders with any of its neighbouring countries; the IBC shall get involved in the matter in a manner established in accordance with the international law governing such international boundaries issues.
4.4. is ok.
4.5. is also fine but none of such experts shall come from IGAD region
4.6. is fine.
Article 6 Supremacy of Revised Bridging Proposal:
- We observe that there is no need for this provision since this chapter shall later be a part of the Revised ARCISS.
- Article VIII(3) of ARCISS provides for adequate supremacy of the Agreement over any provisions or national legislation.
- Once the revised chapters of the Revised Agreement are compiled as one document, Article VIII(3) of ARCISS must be revised to provide that the Revised ARCISS, 2018 is supreme over any national legislation or provisions and in the event of inconsistency, the Revised ARCISS 2018 prevails.
NOTE:
In the new Bridging Proposal on governance distributed to the stakeholders and all parties, there were errors in number Article 4 and 5.
There is 5.1. etc instead of 4.1. etc and this affected the numbering of Article 5 which was written as Article 6. We have corrected these technical errors in this version.
SUMMARY:
- President, First Vice-President, One Vice President(Woman from TGoNU) and another Vice-President from other Political Opposition Parties.
- 30 Ministries.
- 44O Members of Transitional National Legislature.
- 10 states or 21 states or a complete departure to 79 counties.
- Federal system to start at the commencement of the Transitional Period
- 2 each to represent youth and persons with disability in Transitional National Legislature.
RECOMMENDATIONS
- We appeal to the parties to compromise power for the sake of the suffering South Sudanese people and sign the Khartoum new Bridging Proposal as soon as minor areas are corrected and NOT THE CIRCULATED KAMPALA PROPOSAL.
- We recommend that federal system which is a popular demand of the people of South Sudan should commence immediately during the start of the Transitional Period.
- Finally, we appeal to all parties to respect the Agreement on Cessation of Hostilities and spirit and letter of the Transitional Security Arrangement which the parties had inked on 6 July 2018 in Khartoum.
We emphasise that without observance of Permanent Ceasefire which the warring parties have signed, everything remains meaningless because ceasing hostilities is a first great step to building trust among the parties and gaining parties’ lost credibility and confidence of the suffering South Sudanese people.
The Consortium remains seized with the matters of peace in South Sudan and will continue to issue statements which encourage the parties to fully commit to peace. It will continue updating the general public and its membership on peace processes.
For contact, write to us on e-mail: csphdcsouthsudan2017pt@gmail.com or call The Consortium’s Interim Chair on cell: +249997646683; Khartoum-Sudan.
The ‘Civil Society Peace and Humanitarian Development Consortium’ is a Coalition of more than 30 civil society organisations and networks operating in diaspora, nongovernment controlled areas, refugee and internally displaced persons’ camps. It was founded in South Sudan on 20 June 2017 by veteran South Sudanese civil society leaders.
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