South Sudan And The Concept Of Transitional Government

What's Transitional Government? According to existing literature, one of the findings entails that "a transitional government is an emergency governmental authority set up to manage a political transition generally in the case of a new nation or following the collapse of previous governing administration". Source (Wikipedia).

In either of the case, the end game of transitional government is to implement agreed package of programs that shall help parties to reach general elections and form elected government.

In South Sudan, there are competing views and each group defined it in a subjective manner. I will show my view as well.

South Sudan has been in transition since 2005 because of being a new nation. It's a new nation because from 2005 up to 2010, there was no country call Republic of South Sudan and the general elections so conducted in 2010 were elections of the Sudan with Southern Region having her autonomous transitional governance arrangements as a result of comprehensive peace agreement (CPA) of 2005.

On 9 July 2011, South Sudan seceded and joins the community of nations in a fast track manner. Accordingly, the Republic of South Sudan was supposed to conduct her first general elections in 2015.

Unfortunately, for reasons of political violence as a result of many folds associated with a new nation and lack of institutional readiness in charge of electoral process to carry out its mandate, the general elections were cancelled and the National Legislature extended the life span of the elective offices at all levels.

Again, we continued with the transition until another agreement on the resolution of Conflict in South Sudan was revitalized in September 2018. This is an agreement that established the present day Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity (R-TGONU).

Therefore, considering the demands for political accommodation in a transitional governance arrangements, there are technical institutions that cannot compromised meritocracy and professional competences. Top amongst them are ministries of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Health, the Judiciary, National Audit Chamber, Bank of South Sudan, and South Sudan Human Rights Commission amongst others.

In conclusion, the recent Transitional Government of National Unity has already featured in a very small way, a poor, improper or misallocation of some mandate holders related to the above Institutions and others that I did not mention.

It's not too late to correct it if there's a political will. Otherwise, the intended objective of managing transition may have some hurdles on the way.

This is my personal note and does not represent the position of any entity.