A demonstration by academic staff of Rumbek University to demand eight month salary arrears in 2023. (Photo by Marual Makoi
Lecturers at the Rumbek University of Science and Technology have laid down their tools to demand the payment of one month’s salary for January 2024, which they claim has been disbursed to colleagues in other universities.
The teaching staff started the strike on Wednesday and one lecturer who identified himself as Benjamin Matur has confirmed to Eye Radio that the industrial action is ongoing.
In his words, Matur questioned why lecturers in other public universities in the country received their arrears while they do not get receive theirs.
“We are still on strikes. The strike has not been lifted. And this money we are talking about, it is released for all other universities,” he said.
“Our question is why University of Rumbek in particular does not receive its salary? We are fighting for our rights, for the payments of civil servants. Let the governments pay us on time. Let the governments clear all the arrears.”
Eye Radio has verified that lecturers from University of Juba have received January 2024 salary – but was not immediately able to prove if other public universities have also received their dues.
Civil servants and organized forces in South Sudan have gone for one year without receiving salaries for the past year due to economic hardships that have left the government struggling to meet its expenditures.
Another Lecturer Mr. Gamop Makur lamented difficult economic situation faced by the families of unpaid civil servants.
Makur said they are surviving on debts from friends.
“We know when the national government disburses money, we expect it to come on time. But we don’t know who is here in the middle,” he said.
“Because we feel we are civil servants of this country. If money comes out, that means all of us need to be paid on time. You know, we have skipped December. That was a demanding month for all of us.”
“We went borrowing from other people to cater for our children and it is a high time now that we pay them back. But the salary is still yet late. So, we are just asking our national government to look into a problem of the administration of the university, the Ivory Bank and the Central Bank.”
When contacted, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance Mrs. Ishraqa Khamis said the delay in staff payment is not to be blamed on the finance administration of the university.
She narrated that the Central Bank usually disburses money through the Ivory Bank to the university, but added that the bank branch in Rumbek had no cash to give the institution.
“The Ivory Bank in Rumbek don’t have cash. Then the Ivory Bank in the main branch in Juba, they are saying that the central bank has no cash to give them.”
“They just sent a single trip to Rumbek to give the salaries to the university or the government. That one trip is not enough, according to the Ivory Bank in Rumbek. We are not the problem.”
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