Pretoria - Deputy President Cyril Ramapahosa has arrived in Nairobi on the first leg of a two-nation visit aimed at boosting the stalled peace talks in South Sudan.
The Deputy President, who is also Special Envoy of President Jacob Zuma to South Sudan, is expected to meet Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta, the Secretary-General of Tanzania’s ruling Abdurahman Kinana, party and co-guarantor of the SPLM Reunification Agreement, Chama Cha Mapinduzi.
Deputy President Ramaphosa and Mapinduzi will seek to understand the progress made so far in implementing an agreement signed to reunite South Sudan's Sudanese Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM).
Apart from Kenyatta, Deputy President Ramaphosa will also meet former political detainees who were released to Kenya weeks after a civil war broke out 18 months ago.
“The Reunification Agreement seeks to address the political, organisational and leadership issues that caused the political crisis in the ruling party and South Sudan in general,” the Presidency said on Sunday.
South Africa and Tanzania spearheaded the signing of an agreement to reunite the ruling SPLM, while East Africa's regional bloc, IGAD, is leading the stalled Addis Ababa talks.
After the talks in Naroibi, the Deputy President will then visit Juba, where he will hold meetings with President Salva Kirr and members of the SPLM Politburo.
The two visits are hoped to give fresh impetus to the stalled peace process. - SAnews.gov.za
