On Friday evening we learnt with surprise through the South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation (SSBC) that the Hon. Angelina Jany Teny had been fired as Minister of Defense. While it came as a surprise to us who are outside the government, some in government were privy to it including the First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar who in his characteristic tried to impede the looming reshuffle and swapping of the Ministries of Defense and Interior.
Madam Angelina as she is fondly known in the SPLM-IO is a politician of her own right. For a very long-time, she has suffered the tag of being Dr. Riek’s wife but those of us who worked with her know that she is a smart politician who understands the game and who equally understands how the world order works. She knows that politics is vicious and it’s those who are vicious that makes it, so for decades she waited for the right time to make her move, that moment came in March 2020 when to the surprise of everyone in the SPLM-IO she was appointed the Minister of Defense. Many people criticised her appointment and attacked Riek for appointing his spouse not knowing Angelina has been one of the strong pillars of the SPLM-IO who has also paid the price of being an active member of the SPLM-IO. She was not born to be a housewife and she knows it. Had she not fought for her own right, she wouldn’t have been appointed the Minister of Defense.
The reactionary statement issued by the SPLM-IO politburo yesterday will not bring back the Ministry of Defense but could thrust Madam Angelina to the leadership of the SPLM-IO. The articles cited by the politburo in their statement as violation of R-ARCSS is correct but it’s an act of dishonesty by Dr. Riek. When the violation of the R-ARCSS favors him, he overlooks it but when it threatens his position, he issues a condemnation statement. In my last days working with Dr. Riek, I told him politics is not a “dirty” game as they say but a game of the mind. Once Riek got to Juba and settled into his position as the FVP, he relaxed and abandoned the push for the full implementation of R-ARCSS. Little did he know his competitors are not sleeping and playing the game of the mind on how to use R-ARCSS to render him irrelevant in the politics of the country.
The appointment of Hon. Angelina as the Minister of Defense enabled her to prove her prowess in politics and leadership. It enabled her to rid herself off the tag of Riek’s wife, and it enabled her to establish her own network in the region and the world. Riek seem to have forgotten that he has a personality factor in the politics of South Sudan, a factor which will never allow him to ascend to the leadership of the country and a factor which will never allow him get credit for anything good in the country, a factor why R-ARCSS cannot be implemented in letter and spirit with him as a co-principle.
Today Dr. Riek is a very weak leader. He has lost his foot soldiers both politically and militarily, he is no longer popular in Equaroria or Bhar el Ghazal, and in Upper Nile his popularity has dropped to its lowest in history. In the region he is forgotten. If Riek’s competitors are determined to finish him off politically, they will capitalise on his current weak status, they will use the dismissal of Hon. Angelina to propel her takeover over the SPLM-IO. Riek’s competitors would be comfortable working with her at the helm of the SPLM-IO to implement R-ARCSS just like they did with her to complete the unification of the forces. So don’t rule her out yet, she is down but not out.
Manasseh Zindo.
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