President Salva Kiir’s office has defended his record as a liberation leader and challenged critics to contest the government at the ballot box, two days after Vice President Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior publicly questioned who was watching over South Sudan under Kiir’s leadership.
The presidential statement did not name Nyandeng, but its focus on the liberation struggle, national leadership and December elections came after she used the funeral of veteran politician Kosti Manibe Ngai to criticise the country’s political direction.
Nyandeng, one of Kiir’s vice presidents and the widow of the late SPLM leader Dr. John Garang de Mabior, said on Friday that South Sudan had lost some of the gains for which its liberation leaders had fought.
“When Dr. John Garang was there, those of Deng Alor, Elijah Malok, those of Kosti Manibe, all those people were there, watching,” she said. “Who’s watching after President Salva Kiir now? Nobody.”
In its statement on Sunday, the Office of the President rejected what it described as attempts to portray the liberation struggle as the achievement of a select group.
“When reference is made to those who stood with the late Dr. John Garang de Mabior, it must be remembered that the struggle was collective,” it said.
The statement singled out Kiir’s role in that struggle, saying he was “a senior member of that struggle and a longstanding comrade” of Garang.
Kiir served as Garang’s deputy in the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and became leader of the movement after Garang died in a helicopter crash in July 2005, shortly after becoming Sudan’s first vice president under a peace agreement that ended more than two decades of north-south civil war.
Under the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, Kiir also became president of the then-autonomous Government of Southern Sudan. When South Sudan declared independence from Sudan in 2011, Kiir became the first president of the new country, a position he has held since.
The presidency’s statement argued that the departure or death of individual liberation leaders did not leave the country without experienced figures.
“To suggest that nobody was watching over the country after the loss of one liberation leader diminishes the many liberation-era leaders who remained and continued to shoulder responsibility,” it said.
Election challenge
The president’s office also turned its attention to the December elections, accusing unnamed political figures of changing their positions on elections.
It said some people who had previously demanded elections and blamed Kiir for delays were now questioning the process as the vote approached.
“As elections are being prepared for, some of those who demanded elections now appear increasingly opposed to the very process they once demanded,” the statement said, asking whether their positions were based on “principle or political calculations”.
The government has repeatedly presented the December vote as a way to end years of political transition. The elections were originally due much earlier but have been postponed several times, with the latest timetable setting the vote for December 2026.
The presidency said those who believe the government had failed should make their case to voters.
“Those who believe the government has failed should present their case to the people; those seeking change should organize and persuade voters,” it said.
“The people – not political elites, government positions or political rhetoric – must decide.”
Leadership criticism
Nyandeng did not make the December elections the central theme of her Friday speech. Instead, she questioned the value of senior government positions if they did not improve the lives of ordinary South Sudanese.
“Some people feel happy with titles like excellencies, but what are you doing with those titles?” she said. “I am vice president, but what did I do for you?”
She also complained about difficulties accessing Kiir, saying she could sometimes go as long as two years without seeing him.
Her comments were made during a requiem mass for Manibe, who died in Nairobi on Aug. 11 aged 78. Manibe held several senior government positions and became South Sudan’s first finance minister after independence in 2011.
Nyandeng praised Manibe and other senior figures who served alongside Garang, saying they had helped provide oversight during the liberation leader’s time.
The presidency’s statement sought instead to emphasise the collective nature of the liberation struggle and Kiir’s place in it.
“The liberation struggle belongs to the people of South Sudan and should unite the country, not become an instrument of political division,” it said.
Liberation veterans
The statement also called for greater support for former liberation fighters, saying their hardships should not be used as political weapons.
“South Sudan must honor its veterans and liberators and value its greatest national resource: its people,” it said.
Nyandeng had similarly raised concerns about the treatment of those who fought for independence, saying the country had failed to live up to the hopes of its liberation generation.
South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after decades of armed struggle. It has since been plagued by political instability, economic hardship and armed conflict. A 2018 peace agreement ended the country’s civil war but its implementation has repeatedly been delayed.
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