The academic staff at the University of Bahr el Ghazal in Wau have gone on a seven-day strike to demand payment of their salary arrears and allowances.
A banner seen by Radio Tamazuj on Wednesday said the university’s Academic Staff Association has joined other public universities across the country and gone on a seven-day strike starting Monday, 24 June to 1 July. They said they will go on another 21-day strike if there is no positive response from the national government.
They gave the National Ministry of Finance a seven-day ultimatum to pay their dues or they will go on an indefinite strike.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj, Joseph Lual Dario, the chairperson of the Teaching Staff Association at the University of Bahr el Ghazal, said they decided to down their tools because they already warned the government.
“We went on strike because two weeks ago we gave a warning of seven days to the national government but nothing was done regarding payments of our salary arrears, air tickets, and medication. If the government does not respond to our demands after seven days, we will go on an indefinite strike and there will be no exams for the students because they have been patient for more than five years,” he stated. “We have written to the national ministry of high education, the president who is the chancellor of the public universities and we have spread it over the media but there was no response. We just need our salaries.”
Lual appealed to the students to be patient and not lose hope because the lecturers were only demanding their rights from the government and that the examination schedule would be interrupted if their demands were not met.
“We are now left with one week to the examinations and I hope this will not affect the exams because they need services,” he said.
According to the statement seen by this publication, the lecturers are demanding salary arrears from July 2023 to May 2024 in addition to the air tickets for six years, the medical allowance for six years, and adjustment of the salary scale in the 2024-2025 budget according to the current inflation rate of Central Bank of South Sudan.