Mabior sidelines politics to pursue “father’s wish”

Captain Mabior Garang, a former cabinet minister of water and irrigation who is widely known for his bold political personality, is currently freezing his participation in active politics. 

Mabior, the son of the country’s founding father, Dr John deMabior Garang, was considered the bonafide heir to his father’s glittering political career, which was nonetheless short-lived.

 However, his change of approach in the political arena at a time when the country is mulling a general election presents a huge blow not only to his followers but also a potential rebirth of a political personality of the same ilk and bravado as his late father.

Mabior opted to shift his focus to socio-economic development, where he announced that he would focus on agriculture. He attributed this to the ‘‘champion country’s food security.’’

He was recently spotted in photos uploaded on social media doing gardening in Kenya. Mabior was then quoted as saying that he and his peers— young people— had founded an online non-governmental organisation called the National Conversation of South Sudan, which he headed.

National Conversation, according to Mabior, is a continuation of the civil society arm of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, which he called the Civic Authority of New Sudan. He believes that the organization’s ideology was once championed by the country’s founders, including his father. He is determined to follow suit.

Following footsteps

“Because the organisation has its roots in the civil authority of the new Sudan, they aim to carry on the work of the forefathers who are ruling the country now including the President [Kiir], who used to encourage the young people about what they should do,” Mabior said while addressing the media at Dr John Garang International School. 

He said the organisation’s relevance is to ensure that there is the constant dialogue across the country and to inject a new ideology of peace and love into the national conversation to change the reality of South Sudanese in the country.

“The vocabulary with which we conduct the national conversation as citizens will determine our reality. We found out that some of the dialogues we have today are very tribalistic, and that kind of vocabulary is defining our reality,” Mabior said.

Mabior claimed that the handshake he had with President Salva Kiir allowed the National Conversation to come to South Sudan after he and the President resolved to put their differences behind them.

He said that some individuals in the country are using the youth to kill one another.

He dismissed the allegations that his National Conversation is a political party.

“We want to demobilise our youth from negative politics and encourage them to go into farming and production. We want to establish youth agricultural farming so that we can teach this technique to the young people who are already farming, “he said.

Like him, Mabior, his late father, Dr John Garang, had a vision for agricultural industrialisation in the new Sudan. Dr. Garang was against the idea of dependence on food aid from non-governmental organisations.

On Tuesday, the National Conversation South Sudan signed a memorandum of agreement with the Young Farmers Association of Abiemnhom to collaborate on project implementation.

“So, we are going to bring these projects to the country now. We have been outside for a long time, and now we want to bring our project to the country, “Mabior unveiled.

He stated that they will train young farmers in a new technique for preserving produce for long periods so that it can reach the market and be used to manufacture wonderful cuisine.

He showed samples of powdered preserved food vegetables that they had made in Kenya, including pumpkin powder, tomato powder, chilli powder, eggplant, and other vegetables that can be grown in South Sudan.

“We want to teach our people new techniques. When we make the vegetables into a powder, we extract the seeds and also dry them, so we have seeds for the next season. We want to start the powder and the seeds projects to teach our people about these, “said Mabior, as he explained the significance of the technology of preserving food.

“So, we now want to give some seeds to young farmers in Ruweng Administrative Area to go and try our seeds because seeds must be treated when you put them on the ground. There is also a danger of pests eating seeds. So, we treat the seeds so that we can guarantee germination, “he further articulated.

According to Deng Kuel, the chief executive officer, the signing of the MoU is an exercise under the organization’s youth agricultural program,  and moderator of National Conversation South Sudan.

It is to reach an agreement with young farmers’ associations in Abiemnhom who are already running farms that produce various crops.

“They have challenges of pest control, they have challenges in tools, they have challenges of technology that can be able to produce some of the products and our goal after signing the MoU is to add value to what they are already doing,” he highlighted.

Deng stated that they will provide farm tools, pest control materials, and technology on how to produce some of the products and market them within South Sudan and later abroad to the young farmers.

“South Sudan is rich in agriculture and with what we have started, we believe in a short period of time, through this project, we will be able to produce enough food and eliminate food insecurity, which is the biggest issue we have in South Sudan,” he hinted.

 Political career

 Mabior Garang resigned as deputy minister of the interior in June 2020, three months after being appointed on the SPLM-IO ticket as part of a power-sharing deal in the implementation of the parties’ revitalised peace agreement signed in 2018. He cited a lack of political will to carry out the agreement’s provisions.

Last year, Mabior abandoned the SPLM-IO led by First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar and the SPLM-IO Kit-Gwang breakaway faction led by the former chief of staff of the main opposition party, Gen. Simon Gatwech. He resigned as deputy minister of interior and issued a clarification claiming his support for the declaration of Kit-wang in Magenis and his membership in the SPLM-IO political bureau.

Mabior surprised the Kit-Gwang group by flying to Juba on President Salva Kiir’s invitation in November 2021, prompting his former friends to accuse him of joining SPLM.

But Mabior denied his group’s charges and defended himself by claiming that he returned to Juba on his own initiative and without being authorized by anyone. He has, however, accused some members of the Kit-Gwang group of plotting conflict in order to bring the country back to the brink of civil war.