The case between 38 suspended teachers and the Melut Development Committee on oil money commenced at the Juba High Court on Wednesday.
A group representing the 38 was at the High Court early Wednesday awaiting the determination on whether their suspension was procedural or not.
The 38 were suspended in March 2024, following their complaint in January over delay of one-month salary.
The group was now demanding the committee in charge of the money in the oil-rich Melut area to pay their 5 months’ arrears.
A representative of the suspended teachers, Amukpiu Bol, said each individual teacher was supposed to be paid US$5,450 for the 5 months.
“We are demanding about US$207,050. We are 38 teachers and according to the calculation, each teacher is supposed to walk away with US$5,450,” he said.
Bol stressed: “We are not going to stop following up this case. If we are not going to get justice in this court here, we will appeal to the East African court.”
“I appeal that they give us our money, because they tried to sabotage the Ministry of Labor because they found that it has no powers to arrest anyone. That is why we are bringing this case to the high court, and we urge them to give us our money,” Bol emphasized.
The group says their suspension came after they complained about the delay of their 5 months’ salaries from 2023.
“There was no reason or notification given for our suspension. When you want to terminate your employee, you need to notify them one month before so that they can look for other jobs,” he said.
Radio Tamazuj made several attempts to contact the defense lawyer for the Melut Development Committee, but failed.
South Sudan, a country endowed with petroleum and other natural resources, allocates 2% and 3% of the net petroleum revenues to the producing states and communities, respectively. The sharing arrangement is enshrined in the Transitional Constitution (2011) and Petroleum Revenue Management Act (2013).