On Friday, 21 August 2026, the body of South Sudan’s first post-independence finance minister, the amiable and esteemed Kosti Manibe Ngai, was flown to Juba en route to his final resting place in Lui Payam, Mundri East County in Western Equatoria State. The same day, a very well-attended funeral service was held at All Saints Cathedral in Juba were several dignitaries, colleagues and friends eulogized the deceased.
Among those who spoke in church was Vice President Rebecca Nyandeng, the widow of Dr. John Garang de Mabior, who heads the Gender and Youth Cluster. She fittingly eulogized Manibe as a man of integrity who had brains which he used positively during the liberation struggle and to serve the people of South Sudan. Another positive thing she said was that the truth is stronger than the gun and that people should tell the truth to power.
Suddenly, Mama Rebecca, as she is fondly known among certain circles, at some point during her speech, seemed to get ‘possessed,’ then, on a whim, veered off on a tangent, and, in an impassioned voice, asked: “Who is watching after President Salva Kiir?” She said Dr. Garang had Deng Alor, Elijah Malok, Kosti Manibe, and others to support and watch over him. One wonders if she does not consider presidential advisers like Gen. Kuol Manyang, Tut Manime, Dr. Costello Garang Riiny, and Peter Chaleman Cawach, among many others, good enough or simpletons.
It was her opening salvo in turning a solemn funeral service into political theatrics.
Mrs. Garang then announced to the grief-stricken mourners that sometimes she goes for two years without seeing the president.
“When Madam Rebecca goes to the office of President Salva Kiir, she is pushed away,” she said, referring to herself in the third person.
After serving in government for so long in senior positions, one would expect the vice president to know the modalities of making appointments and procedures of official communication. Why doesn’t she write officially to the president? Alternatively, can she present her matter or a request for a meeting when the cabinet meets? Has the president refused to meet her outright, or are his handlers the problem?
Over the years, I have also observed that our people hate or disregard officialdom and want to handle matters informally. Some still feel entitled and have the behavior of the bush days of simply walking up to someone or going to their home and presenting serious official issues in a jocular manner. We are now a country, and the casual camaraderie of the bush days must be replaced with appropriate decorum.
At this point, it was clear VP Nyandeng was on a war path and on a political mission to incite attendees and the public.
On several past occasions, she has publicly spoken against violence and appealed to the youth to abandon tribal conflicts and tools of war in favor of national development. However, on Friday she seemed to have forgotten her calls for peace, or perhaps it is just twaddle, and called out males for being cowards.
“You boys we produced; cowards! You put your tail between your legs. Who is going to fight for you? Your mother?” she probed.
This, coming from a mother who has witnessed the carnage of war and violent conflict for many decades, was shocking. The vice president knows very well that South Sudanese society is militant and people are quick to anger due to years of trauma from successive wars and associated misery. Calling people cowards, especially the youth, can make their blood boil, and in a trance, they can go on a killing spree. Is bloody violence what a mother would desire?
Madam Nyandeng also said South Sudanese have inflicted on each other what their enemies did not do to them. What has she done to mitigate these issues as a leader and mother? For instance, there is recurring cattle raiding and revenge killings in Jonglei State, where she comes from. The people of Equatoria have also complained of marauding pastoralists from her home state who kill people and graze cattle on their farms. Apart from the occasional lip service for media optics, what has she done to systematically address these issues?
Her people and her cattle are causing mayhem, death, and grazing on people’s crops in Mundri, the very home village of the late Kosti Manibe. What a contradiction! Kosti’s hospital bills accumulated and could not be paid until the Presidency paid USD 20,000. Where was Madam Rebecca? Why didn’t she acknowledge the president’s contribution? Then she casually saunters to the podium in the cathedral to hijack a funeral service and turn it into a political spectacle.
Undeniably, during the liberation struggle, Nyandeng, her family and relatives, in-laws, and close associates lived in luxury in Kenya and Uganda while Commander Salva Kiir and others who were on the frontline had their families living in very cheap accommodations and in dire circumstances. Many times, well-wishers had to step in to help stop families of some commanders from being evicted and to pay for food and school fees for their children. We have not forgotten those trying days when some people who are now agitating were living in luxury. They still live in luxury but want to use the plight of South Sudanese to leverage their political agenda. This is mischief! It is also true that some of these people blocked access to the late Dr. John Garang when he led the liberation struggle, and some of his commanders and the people could not meet him.
Mama Rebecca has been a consistent detractor of President Kiir and has kept cozy company with the president’s critics. Thick as thieves! She teamed up with Dr. Machar, who orchestrated a violent coup against Dr. Garang and almost derailed and set back the liberation struggle. Dr. John must be turning in his grave! That deportment led to tensions which later morphed into the December 2013 crisis, which then erupted into a war whose effects are still debilitating our country. What did she do to mitigate the tensions before the flare-up?
At the funeral service on Friday, one could read between the lines that she was trying to rally senior politicians in attendance who had given speeches before her and others who were in attendance. She said people like Aggrey Tisa and Dr. Luka Biong looked sick not because of any particular ailment but due to stress.
The vice president also declared that she is ready to be followed and to die. This is very inciting in a country that is still looking for healing.
She insinuated corruption by saying some people had dollars in their pockets while the majority are suffering. Graft has indeed become an endemic disease in South Sudan. Nyandeng has frequently spoken out against bad governance, tribalism, and corruption, a very good thing. However, even if she has not been directly named in any corruption scandal, there were related issues that happened under her watch while she was minister of roads during the interim period of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. One such case was when a young Ugandan woman was given a contract to ‘rehabilitate’ the bad roads in Juba. The contractor went ahead to get several concrete mixtures and started patching tarmac roads with cement, yet the two elements cannot bond. It was a futile exercise, but money was paid, to the chagrin of engineers who were just observing.
Then there was the scandal of CEC International (part of Italy’s Gruppo Gitto), which was contracted to reconstruct roads in Juba and Juba International Airport. The contract was terminated in July 2008 after completion of only 30 kilometers of asphalt road instead of the planned 60 kilometers, followed by a dispute over financial dues. I remember the Italian owner of that company flying into Juba bearing gifts for bigwigs. That is a matter for another day.
A few years ago, there were accusations that Mrs. Garang was stopped at London’s Heathrow Airport carrying stacks of cash in foreign currency. Those in the know also authoritatively say she owns a big palace in London, and many properties in Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia, and is a part owner of a brewery in Juba. She also allegedly owns a steel factory in Uganda. Yet she dares to talk about corruption! Is an alcohol factory a priority in South Sudan?
“When I am being called Mama Rebecca, I feel proud because I earned it,” she said, adding that she has not done anything for the people as a vice president apart from being driven around in a convoy with a lead car with a siren. Nyandeng earned the right to be called ‘Mama’ during the liberation struggle; that is a given. However, she has, over the years, continued to present as the ‘mother of the nation’ even after President Kiir, who has a wife, First Lady Mary Ayen Mayardit, took over the helm of the state- especially after independence. Nyandeng has, perhaps inadvertently, overshadowed South Sudan’s first lady? Conversely, Mama’s credentials as a mother are suspect. This is because she has not given any of her daughters or sons away in marriage in a country where most cultures measure the success of a mother by how she raises her children into responsible people and how they settle in marriage.
Vice President Nyandeng said liberators are suffering and walking with their heads down. This might be true, and indeed the majority of citizens are suffering, and you can see it in their hollowed faces across the breadth of the country. Having been in government since the interim period, what has she proposed to alleviate the plight of not only veterans, but all citizens? We must stop using the plight of our people to score cheap political points.
Moving forward, collective responsibility seems to be anathema to the vice president? Collective responsibility in government is a rule where all members of a cabinet or ruling group must support official government decisions in public, even if they disagree in private. If a minister cannot support a policy, they must resign. As a whole, the government stands or falls together.
Madam Nyandeng must raise the pertinent issues in the Council of Ministers or quit government. In the event she wants to lead the country, she can contest in the general elections in December.
Truthfully, President Salva Kiir has been patient and magnanimous to his comrade’s widow; otherwise, she would have been locked up for fomenting dissent since the interim period.
Finally, she said the God of South Sudan has ears and eyes. Indeed, Madam Rebecca, God is watching us all!
Respectively!
The writer, Peter M. Akol, is a political and social commentator. He can be reached via email at akolp376@gmail.com.
The views expressed in ‘opinion’ articles published by Radio Tamazuj are solely those of the writer. The veracity of any claims made is the responsibility of the author, not Radio Tamazuj.
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