South Africa plans to convene a retreat where rival South Sudanese parties will try to find each other as efforts continue to forge elusive peace in the country, Deputy President David Mabuza said on Friday.
Mabuza, who is South Africa’s special envoy to South Sudan, said his just-concluded two-day working visit to the East-Central African country this week Mabuza said “has yielded positive results and a renewed sense of hope towards building sufficient consensus for lasting peace and stability for the people of South Sudan.”
“We are looking into convening these parties for a retreat that is aimed at confidence building,” Mabuza said in a statement on Friday.
Mabuza said there is a renewed sense of hope towards building consensus for lasting peace in South Sudan where political rivals are trying to bury the hatchet and form a transitional government.
“We have interacted with the relevant parties who have expressed their commitment to working together, and guided by the objective to form a Transitional Government of National Unity,” the deputy president said.
Rival groups in the South Sudan political crisis have twice postponed formation of a unity government, which is designed to end civil war in the country. A new government is now scheduled to be formed in February 2020, but only if security sector reforms are complete.
During the visit, Mabuza held talks with signatories to the Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan.
He had meetings with President Salva Kiir, heads of opposition groups, representatives of civil society, South Sudan’s national dialogue committee and the special envoy from regional body Intergovernmental Authority on Development.
He highlighted the fact that all parties in the conflict agreed to establish mechanisms to supervise the implementation of the outstanding critical tasks related to security and governance.
“We would like to recommit ourselves and pledge our support, as South Africa, to provide the necessary assistance to ensure that the time-frame agreed upon is fully realised,” he said.
NM/jn/APA