Garang's Vision of Bringing Services to South Sudan's People Remains Unfulfilled

FILE - A boy walks across a wooden bridge over a drainage ditch at the Protection of Civilians (POC) site in Wau, South Sudan, Feb. 1, 2020.

JUBA - As South Sudan marks 10 years of independence, many remain displeased with the performance of the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) in providing essential services like roads, schools and health care across the country.

SPLM founder John Garang called these services “taking towns to the people,” saying they were critical for living and development. But South Sudan’s turmoil since independence has hindered the achievement of that goal.

University of Juba political science professor Jacob Chol says in 2011, the SPLM was supposed to unite the people and bring services closer to them, but when war broke out in 2013 and again in 2016, the country lost valuable resources.

Chol says that now, as the 10th anniversary approaches, the SPLM party should reflect on its original vision and start planning for a better South Sudan.

Another observer, activist Data Gordon, says internal conflict has drained money from essential services.

“Ten years down the road, I have not really seen the SPLM vision of taking towns to the villages reach my village,” Gordon told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus. “This is because so much of the national budget has gone into security, (and) less into service delivery. There is so much conflict that has been experienced within the 10 years, and this has led to displacement, destruction and killing of innocent civilians.”

Sam Alonga, who lives in Maqwi County, in Eastern Equatoria state, said the lack of decent roads in his area recently caused a tragedy.

“A woman was brought from Owiny Ki Bul Primary Health Center under labor,” he says, “and the woman died on the way” because of the arduous journey.

'Lack of comprehensive planning'

Economic analyst Augustino Ting Mayai, with the Juba-based Sudd Institute, says another reason for a dearth of infrastructure development is the SPLM’s lack of comprehensive planning.

“The SPLM first needs to take control of the government, particularly the policy of the government by developing a strategy on how the government delivers services to the people,” Mayai told VOA. “This means the SPLM needs to have a plan having an institution that deals with its development agenda. As we speak it is the ministry of finance that does planning but that planning is only economic planning, and it does not provide activities related to development planning. You can have all the money in the world but (without development planning) services will not be delivered.”

Deng Mading, acting SPLM information secretary and party spokesperson, acknowledges the party has not fulfilled its visions of development.