Mr Mabior Garang de Mabior is theeldest son of the late Dr John Garang founder of the Sudan People’s LiberationMovement (SPLM).
Dr John Garang was the first Vice President of Sudan followingyears of civil war. His mother Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior, is also a politicianand was an adviser to the President of South Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit. She hassince been removed from her position in government has been calling for the resignationof President Kiir. Mabior has been rumoured to be a drug addict and is knownfor frequenting night clubs and abusing alcohol. He is also known for hisoutrageous dress code and his outspoken remarks on his face book page.
On 8October 2012 Mabior was interviewed by Alan Boswell in Nairobi Kenya followinga brutal attack on him by security forces in Juba. He said in this interviewthat the government of Sudan had been trying to intimidate him after his facebook page remarks. He highlighted the divisions within the government and thelevel of corruption that existed.
He told Alan Boswell that he viewed himselfas an activist rather than a politician. He said that he knew Salva KiirMayardit as a child and called him “uncle Salva”. In December 2013 civil warbroke out in South Sudan as a result of an alleged attempted coup that was madeagainst the President by the Vice President Riek Machar. In 2014 Mabior wasalleged to have been arrested in Ethiopia for attempting to assassinatePresident Kirr.
He denies the arrest and confirms that he was at the hotel tovisit some of the SPLM delegation. The civil war ended by a peace agreement thatwas signed in August 2015. This saw the swearing in of Mabior as the Minister ofWater Resources and Irrigation and the reinstatement of the Vice President ReikMachar in April 2016. In May of 2016, President Kiir asked Mabior to leave acabinet meeting due to him being inappropriately dressed because of a bow tiethat he wore. However, even after removing the bow tie, he was not allowed backinto the meeting. He again took to social media to vent his grievances. InSeptember 2016, Machar called for a revised peace agreement.
This led to PresidentKiir disbanding his cabinet and removing and replacing Mabior and the VicePresident. Mabior has since been in exile in an unknown location and has convertedto an animism, worshiping his late father John Garang de Mabior. Some believethat he is likely to be in Kenya close to where his mother is because herequires her support and advice and because of his inability to make decisions onhis own. He continues to post on social media on his new found religion and hisdaily activities. These daily posts include his beliefs in Rastafari and animism.