The guild president of Rumbek University of Science and Technology (RUST) has said the staff strike and lack of food at the university has disrupted their studies and said students will demonstrate in seven days if the situation is not remedied.
The academic and other staff at the Rumbek University of Science and Technology on Monday downed their tools and declared an open-ended strike due to the government’s failure to pay 10 months’ salary arrears.
In a letter seen by Radio Tamazuj on Tuesday, Guild President Sebit Job Reec urged National Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology Gabriel Changson Chang to urgently address the issues hindering the payment of academic and non-academic staff at the university.
“On behalf of Rumbek University of Science and Technology’s General Students Assembly and my behalf, I would like to take this golden opportunity to bring to the attention of Hon. Minister of Higher Education and Science Technology, Hon. Gabriel Changson Chang, that students of Rumbek University of Science and Technology are stranded without lectures and feeding,” the letter reads in part. “Since our lecturers have not been paid for more than 10 months, some of them who went on holiday are also constrained by lack of transport fares to come back to the university. Few lecturers who are on campus have put down their tools due to the same problem of salary not being paid for too long.”
“We are therefore humbly calling upon your able leadership to let our lecturers be paid as soon as possible so that they take up their normal roles in the University,” Job added.
According to the guild president, the company contracted to supply the university with food for the students has not been paid by the national finance ministry and stopped deliveries, forcing students to go hungry on campus.
“If nothing happens within seven days from now, students will go out in their numbers for peaceful demonstrations,” Job warned. “We cannot afford to die of hunger on the campuses and we cannot afford to stay on campus without lectures. We will make our voices heard.”
For his part, the chairperson of the university’s non-academic staff association, Dut Majok Kuruai, said their members resolved during a general assembly on 11 October that they would go on strike if the government does not pay their salary arrears too.
“We, the Non-academic Staff Association of Rumbek University of Science and Technology resolved to declare an open strike with effect from Monday 14 October until our demands are addressed by the national ministry of finance,” he stated. “There will be no services at Rumbek University of Science and Technology.”