The ruling party in South Sudan, SPLM, should be antiquated, not revived

SPLM is people's trauma personified and codified. Since South Sudanese became an autonomous, self-governing region in 2005, its focus has been the consolidation of power. Service provision, infrastructural and economic develop took a backstage. The civilian needs became complex inconveniencies.

So...Listen...Okay...read...

Mr. Rajab Mohandis of the people's coalition for civil action (PCCA )said in one of our conversations on #KuirthiyTV that the elite in South Sudan can make any institution functional if it serves their interests. 

Indeed.

His argument is that institutions in South Sudan do not function for the people. They function for the elite. If the elite want something, they will move mountains to ensure relevant institutions provide for them. 

Now I see Rajab's point clearly. But this has been the case since 2005. But the problem became exacerbated by the 2013 crisis. This is when political, tribal and economic survivalism became the defining ideal. Service provision became an inconvenience. 

SPLM has now formed committees to go to different parts of South Sudan because of their selections, I mean, elections. Now they are at the grassroots.

For service provision? For development? For security assessment?

No!

For power!

What if they had formed such committees during the last two years as assessment tools for the needs of the people? What if they had formed them as tools to inform the cabinet and the president about the state of schools, roads, hospitals, clinics, resource centers, security situation, etc.? Wouldn't South Sudan have been a country whose raison d'être are people ... not just the ravenous elite?

No. SPLM needed a reason that benefits them to send committees to the grassroots.
Imagine. Liberators! How Shameful!

For the past two decades we have been urging SPLM leaders to visit and talk to South Sudanese. They either ignored us or they saw us as jokesters.

We advised them to either let the president visit all states and major towns on regular basis, or send SPLM delegations to towns and villages.

This, we hoped, would allow them to hear and see for themselves what the people are saying and how they are living.

But no! They were too comfortable in their Republic of Juba. The people didn't count for them. But now they have realized the people actually exist...they count!

When an SPLM senior official Madam Josephine Napwon, recently appealed to the Government, by which she meant her own party, I have no idea what she expected to find here.

Did she expect the development her party has taken to the people? Didn't she know what she would find is the metaphorization of her party? Why was she seemingly surprised?
It seems the surviving SPLM leaders only followed others to the bush. They were converted into liberators and told what they were to liberate.

As Brian Adeba recently argued in our conversation on regional geopolitics, South Sudan needs a change of CEO in addition to a complete systemic overhaul.

Indeed.

I would also say the country needs to free itself from the trauma called SPLM.

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Kuir ë Garang (PhD) is the editor of The Philosophical Refugee (TPR) and the host of KuirthiyTV

What Commissioner Kalisto can learn from Governor Kuel Aguer

Left: Care-taker Commissioner of Juba County, Mr. Kalisto Ladu.
Right: Former Governor of Northern Bahr El Ghazal, Mr. Kuel Aguer Kuel.

On October 6, 2026, the Caretaker Commissioner of Juba Country, Mr. Kalisto Ladu, threatened to ban foreigners from South Sudan's informal economy and retail businesses. 

Speaking in Juba Arabi, he said foreigners should not leave their countries and come to South Sudan only to sell chapati, onions and tomatoes by kilos in the streets. "What will our South Sudanese women do?" he asked.

He warned that no foreigners should engage at the lowest levels of the South Sudan's informal economy. 

In my conversation in January 2026 with former Governor of Northern Bahr El Ghazal, Mr. Kuel Aguer Kuel, we spoke about the kind of the informal economy Mr. Kalisto was referring to. 

Governor Kuel said: 

"When I was  governor, I went and I found these ladies making tea, selling vegetables, selling greens, and they were being taxed.

And I made a decision that they should not be taxed because these are people who want to survive. You bring firewood to the market to sell so that you buy sugar for your children and you are taxed from this. I say, “ no, no”. There is a certain income that is taxed. So these ladies should not be taxed. Let them develop, even the tea ladies.

They develop from tea to have restaurants. And when they have restaurants, wm ask them…to have license and we will be able to take taxes from then.

But if we start taxing them from tea, they will remain in the tea and they will not be able to come into conventional economy. So this informal economy is a school where people are trained to join the conventional economy. Because otherwise...you will destroy them and they will go out of business." 

Kuel added:

"They need even to be supported if they have plans. By then I wanted to talk to Dr. Alic Garang  [former governor of South Sudan's Central of South Sudan] to come and sit with them to ask them what would they do if they get more money so that we can put money in a commercial bank and then we ask them to get loan from it. We guaranteed their loans from government money so that they can take loan and do their business whatever they want to do and they will be returning.

If they default, then the government will be able to pay that because there is a risk of course. Because some of these women, they don't have land. So there will be no collateral. So the collateral will be the government. You give them up to about $500, $600, whatever they want to do with that amount of money. And government will grant you.

If they don't pay it back, the government will be able to do it. And they should be put in the books of a minister of commerce in the state. And then they are followed up. How are they growing? What are the difficulties they are facing? And then you help them. You will have local people to help them in planning, to help them in how they deal with issues until they become business people and they grow up. So this is the way you deal with informal because when somebody try to get into business, it has got entrepreneurial scheme and they need to be supported so that he become a big entrepreneur in the future. Yeah."

Commissioner Kalisto's call, however, infuriated South Sudanese who disapproved of what he said. They thought it was not carefully thought out. 

One commentator even accused him of being an attention-seeker.

Kalisto's call also caused uneasiness across the border as the foreigners he was referring to are from the neighboring countries. 

Hon. Rebecca Kadaga, Uganda's Minister of East African Affairs, asked for fairness in laws and policies restricting Uganda traders and businesses in South Sudan. She noted that South Sudan has a bilateral agreement with Uganda.  

While Mr. Kalisto's call cannot be dismissed entirely, many still believed he could have been more careful. A blanket call to bank foreigners from engaging in small business activities may fuel the xenophobic sentiments we have seen over the last few years in South Africa. 

The approach Governor Kuel took is something Commissioner Kalisto should adopt. This can make South Sudanese small businesses competitive. 

Fortunately, Mr. Kalisto has since clarified his statement. He said that "There is nothing about sending foreigners out of South Sudan. There is nothing about prohibiting foreigners from business. There is nothing about hating foreigners."

This is important in assuaging xenophobic fears.

However, the commissioner added that "If we can just leave our people like that, without also protecting them in business, then we will be committing negligence."

This is also useful. It is the kind of protection Governor Kuel provided to the informal sector. 

Since small businesses are the engine of the country, it is important that the citizens are the ones who dominant the small business environment. The economy suffers if the engine of the economy are foreigners who can leave the country anytime for one reason or another. 

Unfortunately, the business climate in South Sudan is dominated by foreigners. So Commissioner Kalisto's statement while crass, was based on lived reality of the citizens. 

However, it is also not the fault of foreigners. They saw a lucrative business opportunity and climate in South Sudan, however small. They utilized it. 

They also had the entrepreneurial and business skills many South Sudanese did not have because many of them lived outside the country in refugee camps for decades.

What South Sudan and Juba County needs is a legal, clear and streamlined strategy to help South Sudan improve their entrepreneurial and business management skills. 

Governor Kuel provides one best practice. 

This would allow them to complete with Kenyans, Ethiopians, Eritreans, Ugandans, Somalis and other African business people and traders in South Sudan. 

Over-time, South Sudanese may fairly dominate the business environment in their own country. 

For now, Commissioner Kalisto needs to exercise care in his public statements. He is someone who is fond of making controversial statements. Some of his statements are justified while others were not. 

For now, he needs to be more circumspect and provide economically found strategies to support onions, tea and tomato leaders. This would make them, as Governor Kuel has said "trained to join the conventional economy."

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By the Editor