South Africa Vision

JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN — The search for sustainable peace in South Sudan hit another obstacle this week as infighting erupted within the ruling SPLM party. Riek Machar, the country’s first vice president, was expelled from his position as SPLM vice chairman. The dismissal pours cold water on years of efforts to heal rifts among South Sudan’s top leaders – the same rifts that caused the country’s civil war.

Riek Machar was the party’s first vice chairman, a spot that placed him in a strategic position to claim the SPLM presidency if President Salva Kiir, who is also SPLM chairman, were to opt out of party politics.

Kuol Atem, SPLM secretary for political affairs, said this week that Machar and party Secretary General Pagan Amum have been taken off the party register because they are trying to build up their own parties.

“Though his office is just less than 200 meters away from the SPLM national secretariat and the same distance from the President Saliva Kiir’s, he continues to organize his party as we are all eyewitness to that effect. Comrade Pagan is busy with Real SPLM Party, abroad and the Rome process; and SPLM is being held hostage.”

Though associated with the SPLM in Opposition (SPLM-IO), Machar insists that SPLM-IO is not a registered party and thus he never ditched the mother party as claimed by Atem.

Puok Both Baluang is the acting press secretary in the Office of First Vice President.

“The decision made by President Salva Kiir faction to dismiss comrade Riek Machar and comrade Pagan Amum, from SPLM and also…as first deputy chair of the party and secretary general of the party, it is unconstitutional based on the SPLM constitution. They are elected members. Such dismissal or replacement is only possible if there is a national convention of SPLM, not a faction.

There are 14 registered political parties in South Sudan, according to records at the Political Parties Council. However, in reality there are more than 50 parties operating in Juba alone.

That includes several factions of the SPLM, including Machar’s, Amum’s and President Kiir’s. The last, which is the original SPLM party, is known as SPLM-in-Government.

It was a split between Kiir and Machar that triggered South Sudan’s six-year civil war in December 2013.

Abraham Kuol Nyuon, an associate professor of political science at the University of Juba, says the removal of Machar and Amum from their positions in the main party is ultimately a dispute over which faction is legitimate.

“So this removal is about the ownership of the party symbol, it is about the ownership of the emblem and it is about the ownership of the party of SPLM.”

Analysts say parties with the SPLM tag will likely have an advantage with voters in the next elections, slated for late 2024.

South Sudan is currently run by a transitional government, which recently extended its mandate by another two years.

Professor Kuol says the country should expect such bickering at party levels in the run up to the elections.

Source: Voice of America

UNITED NATIONS — A commission of independent U.N. experts examining rights violations and atrocities in the war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region says that without an end to the fighting, the risk of further atrocity crimes is growing.

“Atrocity crimes are imminent unless there is a cessation of hostilities,” commission member Radhika Coomaraswamy told reporters Friday at the United Nations.

The U.N. International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia warned in their report delivered Thursday to the General Assembly committee that deals with human rights, that Ethiopian, Eritrean and Tigrayan forces have all committed violations in the hostilities that began two years ago. Commission Chair Betty Murungi said several of these violations rise to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The report outlines the dire humanitarian situation in the northern Tigray region, where 6 million people have been cut off from supplies and services by the federal government’s blockade.

“We focused first on the dire humanitarian situation in Tigray and found that the widespread denial and obstruction of access to food, medicine and basic services amounted to a crime against humanity, as well as the war crime of using starvation as a method of warfare,” said commission member Steven Ratner, an American law professor.

The three-member commission created by the Human Rights Council last December also found that the federal government targeted civilians in Tigray with shelling, air strikes and drone attacks.

Addis Ababa has rejected the commission’s report.

Ethiopia’s U.N. ambassador, Taye Atske Selassie, told the General Assembly committee Thursday the report is “incoherent and sketchy” and is intended to intensify political pressure against his government.

“The commission is merely an instrument that will later serve as justification for intervention and sanctions,” Selassie said.

The commission found that Tigrayan forces also committed serious crimes, including large-scale killings of Amhara civilians, rape and sexual violence, extrajudicial killings, torture, looting and destruction of civilian property.

“To the degree that there have been allegations of isolated wrongdoing by Tigray forces, the Government of Tigray takes those allegations seriously and will ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice,” the regional authorities said in a statement when the U.N. commission’s report was first published in September.

The report says rape “has been perpetrated on a staggering scale” since the fighting began in November 2020. Survivors in Tigray have implicated the Ethiopian National Defense Force, Eritrea Defense Forces and the Amhara militia, Fano. Women were raped, gang raped, held as sex slaves and violated with objects.

Sexual violence by Tigrayan forces was documented in areas of neighboring Amhara, where some survivors testified that their rapists told them they were avenging the rape of Tigrayan women and girls.

While the commission said grave violations of international law have been carried out, they did not go so far as to deem it a genocide.

“We didn’t have a pattern in which we could at this point say that genocide was happening or could not be happening,” said Coomaraswamy, a lawyer who has investigated atrocities in her native Sri Lanka and in Myanmar.

“But we do say that because of the indicators that are now present at this particular moment in Ethiopian history, and with what is going on at the moment, that there is a possibility that atrocity crimes — that could include genocide — can happen unless the international community, the African Union, stop the cessation of hostilities,” she said.

On Tuesday, African Union-mediated peace talks began in South Africa between the federal government and Tigrayan leaders. The commission welcomed the talks, saying it hopes they will lead to an end to the fighting, the resumption of humanitarian access and the return of peace and security for the people.

The commission spent a week in Addis Ababa in July and hoped to receive permission for “unfettered access” to Tigray, which regional authorities support. But the Ethiopian federal government so far has not granted their request.

“A war without witnesses, as you know, can be terrible,” commission member Coomaraswamy emphasized.

Source: Voice of America

Joint media release: Premier instructs Western Cape Police Ombud to investigate alleged link between South African Police Service and gangs.

Today Western Cape Premier Alan Winde requested the Provincial Police Ombud Oswald Reddy to launch an investigation to answer one key question:

Is there sufficient evidence and concern to warrant establishing a Commission of Inquiry to probe serous allegations of links between gangs and members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) in the province – among them senior officials?

A Western Cape High Court judgment, delivered on 17 October 2022, stated that there is evidence that gang members have infiltrated the top management structures of the SAPS in the Western Cape, and are accessing key documents and strategies on crime fighting. With few arrests or prosecutions of gangsters taking place, it could be the case that this is actively aiding them to avoid the law. Premier Alan Winde said: “This judgment has highlighted alleged horrific and deep-rooted corruption and collusion between the SAPS and members of the so-called 28’s gang.”

In his ruling, Judge Daniel Thulare stated: “The evidence suggests not only a capture of some lower ranking officers in the SAPS. The evidence suggests that the senior management of the SAPS in the province has been penetrated to the extent that the 28 gang has access to the table where the Provincial Commissioner of the SAPS in the Western Cape sits with his senior managers and lead them in the study of crime, develop crime prevention strategies and decide on tactics and approach to the safety and security of inhabitants of the Western cape. This includes penetration of and access to the sanctity of the reports by specialized units like the Anti-Gang Unit and Crime Intelligence, to the Provincial Commissioner.” The judgment further states that the gang had protection and assistance from corrupt members of the police.

Upon receipt of the outcome of the Ombud’s investigation, and based upon its contents, the Premier will then consider further steps in this respect. “This matter cannot be ignored any longer by Police Minister Bheki Cele and the national government. In the absence of decisive action from them over a considerable amount of time, we as the Western Cape Government (WCG) are committed to addressing this critical issue,” Premier Winde stressed. He added: “We hope to finally address and stem the rot that is alleged to have set in within the SAPS under Minister Cele’s watch. There is also no doubt in my mind that President Cyril Ramaphosa needs to fire Minister Cele. How much longer can the President allow him to keep this critical cabinet position, in light of these serious allegations against SAPS?”.

Provincial Minister of Police Oversight and Community Safety, Reagen Allen said: “I am horrified by the judge’s words, and I commend him for denying bail to the accused involved in this case. Various current and previous cases have highlighted the alleged corrupt relationship between certain SAPS members and gangsters. Earlier today, I concluded a meeting with the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID), and they have undertaken to study the judgment and initiate investigations where they are required. I am, however, deeply concerned that the results of IPID investigations would ultimately land at Minister Cele’s door, and we know he hasn’t taken any further steps on this in the past. In the interests of Western Cape residents, who suffer gang violence on a daily basis, we therefore need to take our own steps.”

Barely a day goes by where there is not a gang-related shooting in Cape Town. In a recent atrocity, in Lavender Hill, an 11-year-old boy was shot dead in a suspected gang attack.

“It is tragedies like this that horrify me and our citizens. For how much longer must our communities continue to live in fear of gangs? This court judgement puts a huge question mark on the role of SAPS in possibly aiding these atrocities, when they are in fact the mandated body to be tackling them. We will not stand by as gangsterism runs rampant and communities are traumatised. We are taking action,” the Premier said.

Minister Allen concluded: “The SAPS officers allegedly implicated do not deserve their blue uniform, as their alleged primary aim is not to serve and protect our residents, but allegedly to serve and protect the gangs. If this is the case, it is at the expense of our communities.”

Source: Government of South Africa