Cape Town – The Department of Transport and its entities will soon help crisis-stricken South Sudan to develop and build airports and roads infrastructure.
Transport Minister Dipuo Peters and her South Sudan counterpart, the Transport, Roads and Bridges Minister Kwong Danhier Gatluak, signed a bilateral agreement to help South Sudan with the construction of airports as well as a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to help the country with the rehabilitation of its roads.
Minister Gatluak also announced that his President Salva Kiir has finally signed a peace deal with rebel forces to end a protracted civil war that has left over two million people displaced.
Shortly after the signing ceremony on Wednesday, Minister Peters said the signing of the agreements were historic and paved the way for development in South Sudan.
The Minister said that following the signing of South Sudan’s comprehensive peace agreement in 2005, South Africa has been instrumental in providing development and mediation assistance to South Sudan.
“In working together, we need to develop a masterplan on upper airspace management, we will also assist in the air traffic control, engineering airport management, technical … and also issues related to the training of pilots and inspectors as well as ensuring safety enforcement as well as dealing with issues of fire safety training,” she said.
The Minister said an audit would be done in the same areas to further determine the needs of South Sudan.
“We need to re-do the feasibility study that was done in order to ensure that we can quantify the actual needs because once we know their actual needs, we will know the actual resources as well as the time requirements to make sure that we can deliver,” she said.
South Sudan signs peace deal
After a civil war that has left millions of South Sudanese people displaced, Minister Gatluak announced that his President Kirr had put pen to paper on a peace deal to end a stand-off between government and rebel forces that has left the country’s infrastructure in shambles.
The peace deal, which was agreed upon on 15 August, will see rebel leader Riek Machar returning to office as the country’s vice-President.
The South African government, led by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, has also been involved in the peace talks as a mediator.
In an interview with SAnews after the signing of the bilateral agreements, the Minister said the peace deal paves way for the bilateral agreements to be implemented and for South Sudan to re-build.
“During the crisis, everything was destroyed. Because we stopped rehabilitating and maintain the roads, they were finished.
“Cities were destroyed because you know war destroys.
“[The signing of the bilateral agreements] is significant because we will go back now to rebuild what has been destroyed … [including] the roads.” – SAnews.gov.za
