Western Bahr el Ghazal State Governor Rizik Zachariah Hassan has reiterated his support for transferring the capital city of South Sudan from Juba to Wau. This comes after his meeting with the president during the latter’s visit to Wau last month.

In remarks on Sunday, the governor explained that one of the reasons for the move is that communities of Central Equatoria State are reluctant to offer land for use by the national government. 

This was a factor in the Council of Ministers’ vote in 2012 to transfer the capital to Ramciel in Lakes State, a location chosen for its position approximately at the geographic center of South Sudan.

Governor Rizik referred to this as well as to debates about the issue in 2005, the year Juba was chosen as the capital.

He noted, “There was a dispute of Juba being the capital city of the Republic of South Sudan, we discussed it during the ‘South-South Dialogue’ in Nairobi in 2005 and it was resolved that Juba not be the capital, but due to some technicalities a document was not signed [on the issue],” he told Radio Tamazuj.

“But when matters came as so urgent, the leadership decided to take the capital to Juba temporarily while they are processing the development of Ramciel as the proposed capital city,” Rizig said.

The governor recalled that after independence the national government then formed two committees, one headed by then minister of National Security Oyai Deng to meet with the Central Equatoria State government about whether to keep the capital in Juba, and another by Jemma Nunu Kumba to assess moving the capital to Ramciel.

The national government committees eventually resolved that the capital should be moved from Juba to Ramciel. The idea was to build the new city from the ground up.

But the plan was prevented from being implemented by lack of resources and infrastructure, Rizig noted, stressing that this is a reason why Wau is a better alternative. 

“Our feelings as the people of Western Bahr el Ghazal we thought there are a lot of problems being debated around Juba being the capital between the host communities and the national government and people from other states over the issue of land,” he said.

“That’s why we are coming in as a solution for the difficulties, because we saw South Sudan is not in any need of disputes apart from the recent rebellion. The second to that, we knew Wau has vast and large land which can accommodate every each community from South Sudan,” Rizig added.

Rizig pointed out that people of Western Bahr el Ghazal came out to demonstrate peacefully in support of the idea of transferring the capital to Wau. He said also that civil society is enlightening the nation on the idea of transferring the capital city from Juba to Wau.

“I’m not insisting on the idea, but when we came up with the idea, it has been spoken of and supported by most of the South Sudanese people, because people need peace, unity. All of us need a comfortable area which can accommodate the capital without any further disputes,” Rizig said.

The governor also argued that Wau has the infrastructure needed to be a national capital, arguing that its current state of development is better than that of Juba when the latter was made capital in 2005. “It is not a matter of infrastructure or manpower because the national government has its own staff, and Wau is operating now,” he said.

Hon. Manasseh Magok Rundial, South Sudan’s speaker of National Legislative Assembly, also commented on the issue while visiting Wau on Sunday. He said the choice belongs to be the people of South Sudan, suggesting the matter could be decided through a referendum vote.

“If they said that they wanted the capital to be transferred to Wau, we will vote to decide on it – not in my own capacity as a speaker, not the people of Western Bahr el Ghazal, but it will be the citizens of the ten states of South Sudan to determine,” Magok said.

Magok headed a delegation to Western Bahr el Ghazal State on Sunday for the launching of new domestic airline that will connect Juba and Wau with regular flights.

Related: 

Demonstration in Wau calling for transfer of South Sudan's capital (24 July)

Analysis: Kiir looking at scenario for moving capital (23 July)