Civil servants in South Sudan’s Yei River County have threatened to go on strike if the government fails to release their unpaid salaries for six months.
Several civil servants told Radio Tamazuj that the county and state governments were adamant to listen to challenges affecting them.
A primary school female teacher said her health and family conditions are deteriorating due to lack of access to better health care and food for herself and her children.
“It’s a challenge as I speak to you now. We stopped receiving our salaries some months back and we are demanding our six months’ pay now. We are going to seven months at the end of October without money,” she said
Another civil servant who identified herself as Betty blamed top government officials for failing to pay their low salaries but spent a lot of money to meet their own needs.
Betty urged the government to pay their salaries before they could resort to strike at the end of this month.
Another health official who identified himself as Paul said, “We are desperate, teachers are suffering, medical workers are suffering, our soldiers are suffering, and our children are suffering where this country is taking us to?” he asked.
Officials at the finance ministry in Yei could not be reached for comment.