The main armed opposition party led by First Vice President Dr Riek Machar has refuted allegations that the Minister of Petroleum, Puot Kang Chuol, has been sacked as the party’s youth league leader.
On Monday, media reports quoted an anonymous official of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) who alleged that Dr Machar had removed Chuol as the Youth League Chairperson.
Mr Chuol has held this position for nearly nine years since the outbreak of the December 2013 conflict that gave birth to the SPLM/A–IO.
The official, who is said to be Dr Machar’s close ally, alleged that the decision to remove Puot Kang and his deputy, Saed Banda, was reached at the recent party’s fourth National Liberation Council meeting held in Juba.
“The Chairman and Commander in Chief of the SPL/A-IO Dr Riek Machar Teny, who is also the First Vice President of the Republic of South Sudan, has removed Cde Puot Kang as the chairman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition Youth League,” the official was quoted by Sudans Post saying on Wednesday.
“This effectively means that the executive board of Cde, Puot Kang Chuol, has been dissolved by the chairman through our recommendation and his deputy Cde. Saed Bandas has also been removed, and the person running the SPLM-IO Youth League affairs now is Cde Jackson Wani, who is the acting chairperson.
“The SPLM-IO Constitution provides that a person who is a youth shall be between 15 and 35, and as such, Puot and Saed are above that age limit, which is why they cannot run the youth affairs when they are not youth,” the official added.
Not true
When contacted, the SPLM-IO Director of Information and Public Relations, Puok Both Baluang, who is also Machar’s Acting Press Secretary, refuted the report.
He said the SPLM/A-IO Chairman was yet to announce changes in the party leadership structure.
“If there is any reshuffle or change or replacement, it will be done altogether [with] the announcement of filling the vacant positions within the movement due to defections,” said Baluang.
He neither confirmed nor denied the removal of Kang as the SPLM-IO Youth League Chairperson.
The SPLM/A-IO has been experiencing waves of defections both from the party’s political and military wings in recent years, creating many vacancies in the organization that are yet to be filled. They include the position of Dr Machar’s deputy.
Last week, Balaung told The City Review that the replacement for the former deputy would soon be announced by the chairman, pending some processes.
“The first step is that we should complete our National Liberation Council, which was conducted on the second of December. Now we have formed the NLC and, according to our constitution, the appointee and the vacant positions from the SPLM-IO should come from the National Liberation Council, which is the NLC, ” he said.
“Now that this process is done, we will (then) announce not only the deputy chair but other vacancies within the structure of the SPLM/A-IO, to have the deputy chairperson and (other positions left vacant) due to defections and other (factors) during the struggle.”