President Kiir axes Acuei from MoH
President Salva Kiir has dismissed Elizabeth Acuei as the minister of health, replacing her with Yolanda Awel Deng. Ms Acuei was dismissed in a presidential decree readout on the state-run broadcaster SSBC on Wednesday evening. No reason was cited for the change.
The outgoing minister was appointed to the seat in 2020, at the time when the country was destined to battle with the dreadful coronavirus pandemic that was taking a swathe across continents holding countries at ransom.
During her stint at the helm of the health docket, Acuei had her fair share of moments: from having howlers at the press conferences to engaging in tussles at the corridors of the ministry of health.
For instance, after her appointment when the country noted its first cases of the COVID-19 pandemic, the outgoing minister was criticised for failing to correctly pronounce the word ‘‘coronavirus’’, by referring to it as ‘‘kolona biruth’’.
In 2021, the former Deputy Minister of Labour, Public Service and Human Resource Development was embroiled in a tussle with her docket undersecretary, Dr Anib Majur, over the restructuring at the country’s main referral facility: Juba Teaching Hospital.
Acuei suspended Dr Majur on October 20, 2021, citing insubordination on the grounds that the undersecretary never consulted her when she made the changes.
‘‘In exercise of powers conferred upon me by Article 114 (2) (c) and Article 31 of the Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan 2011 as amended, read together with the Republican Decree No:222/2020, I Hon. Minister Elizabeth Acuei Yol, Minister of Health do hereby issue a Ministerial Order… suspension of Dr Victoria Anib Majur from her duties as the Undersecretary in the Ministry of Health…Dr Samson Paul Baba shall serve as the acting the acting Undersecretary in the Ministry of Health,’’she said in her statement. She named Dr Simon Baba as the acting undersecretary. However, Dr Majur defended herself saying she was acting on instruction from the Vice President of Service Cluster, Hussein Abdelbagi. She added that the facility was in a terrible state and it was not prudent to wait for the minister to return from her trips abroad to act.
With stalemate threatening service delivery, President Salva Kiir directed the Chairperson of the National Transition Committee Tut Gatluak to initiate the mediation. This bore fruits on January 20, 2022, when the minister reinstated the undersecretary after months of
‘‘I Elizabeth Acuei Yol, Minister for Health, do hereby issue this Ministerial order lifting the suspension of Dr Victoria Anib Majur, the Undersecretary for the Ministry of Health. The Undersecretary for the Ministry of Health is hereby directed to resume her duty immediately,” Acuei noted in her statement.
