Lecturers at the University of Bahr el-Ghazal in Wau on Thursday took to the streets demanding their eight months salaries.
The protesters also told the National Ministry of Finance to clear their 2019- 2024 medical arrears and air tickets.
Last week, the lecturers downed their tools to demand a response to their demands from the National Government.
“We need our eight months salaries plus our 2019 medical allowances and air tickets, no salaries, no Monday exams,” the university staff chanted as they moved out of the main campus.
The chairperson of the academic staff association, Joseph Lual Dario, told Radio Tamazuj that the students would not have the scheduled Monday exams if the government did not urgently pay the lecturers.
“Today, we are on the street. Why are we on the street? Because we are demanding eight months salaries to be paid. We have been working for eight months without salaries, so please, the government, the National Government, especially the Minister for Finance in Juba, please hear us. We need to be paid today, not tomorrow,” said Dario.
“We need ticket allowances to be too paid to us now, not tomorrow. We need our medical allowances from 2019 to 2024. We also need the salaries to be adjusted,” he added.
Dario asserted that there would be no exams on Monday unless their demands are met.
A teaching assistant in the Chemistry Department of the College of Education, Jacob Cutty Machar, said he had been hoping for a pay for eight months to no avail. He said his family was going hungry and he could no longer afford to keep his children in school.
“How can I be working when my child is going hungry? How can I be working when my child is sent away from school for fees? This must stop,” he said.
Aticasta Paulino said they had had enough of the waiting.
“We have not been paid for eight months, our children have been sent away from schools, we have suffered a lot, enough is enough, we need our eight months’ salaries now,” she said.
Last month, the university’s academic staff association gave the National Ministry of Finance a seven-day notice to pay them or they down their tools.
