John Garang de Mabior

Lam Akol Ajawin of the South Sudan Democratic Movement; Pa'gan Amum Okiech leader of the Real Sudan People's Liberation Movement (currently in opposition) and Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior the Fourth Vice-President in the transitional government and widow of former President John Garang are all likely contenders for the presidency but will not stand against Kiir until the peace agreement has been implemented say insiders (AC Vol 59 No 19 No cash no peace)...

The same day however Mabior Garang de Mabior son of the liberation hero John Garang and prominent critic of his successor President Salva Kiir Mayardit resigned as deputy interior minister citing the failure of the national unity government to fully implement the provisions of the peace deal or to cope with the pandemic (AC Vol 59 No 19 No cash no peace)...

In addition to Salva and Riek current Vice-Presidents Taban Deng Gai and James Wani Igga received invitations as did Rebecca Nyandeng John Garang's widow who is expected to fill the vice presidential slot allowed to the 'Former Detainees' Group (AC Vol 59 No 6 Salva stalls the peacemakers and 59 No 19 No cash no peace)...

Mabior the eldest son of South Sudan's founder John Garang de Mabior has a particular grudge against Salva...

Mabior's mother Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior who as John Garang's widow is effectively dowager mother of the nation is similarly unimpressed by Salva but he needs both on board to convince doubters that he is serious about the establishment of a genuinely inclusive new administration...

After the death in 2005 of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement's most important leader John Garang Salva reconciled with the southern militias long backed by Khartoum...

The female vice-president slot is seen by some as Rebecca Garang's – the widow of Sudan People's Liberation Movement founder John Garang – to lose...

That it is even within the realm of possibility that Riek Lam Akol and John Garang's widow could be brought into Juba as Vice-Presidents indicates just how little has changed in nearly 30 years...

The split in the SPLA led by by Riek and Lam Akol in 1991 against John Garang opened up a Pandora's box of ethnic bloodletting that begat many of South Sudan's present troubles...

Cirillo an ethnic Bari was trained as an officer in the 1980s Sudan Armed Forces before joining the SPLA of John Garang (AC Vol 46 No 16 Garang's last journey)...

Taban had joined the SPLM straight from school and impressed the SPLM leader Colonel John Garang de Mabior who once said that if the SPLA had ten of Taban it would be 'ten times more effective'...

• Mabior Garang de Mabior: Water Resources & Irrigation; critic of government since 2012; inexperienced but highly symbolic as eldest son of late SPLM founder John Garang de Mabior and prominent opposition politician Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior; Bor Dinka; ordered out of cabinet meeting last week because wearing his trademark bow tie...

Government supporters deride Riek's SPLM-IO as a reincarnation of the South Sudan Defence Force which backed by Khartoum fought the late Colonel John Garang de Mabior's SPLM during the North-South war...