South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Awan Achiek
Lecturers in Rumbek University of Science and Technology on Monday threatened to lay down their tools if they are not paid their salaries for the past five months.
Kot Manyuon Kuch, a lecturer at Rumbek University of Science and Technology said that they have given the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning seven-day ultimatum to clear their unpaid arrears, adding that failure to do so will result in industrial action.
“We demand that the government pay all these arrears within seven days and failure to do this, we the academic staff of Rumbek University of Science and Technology will have no other option than to go for industrial action,” he told The Dawn in an interview.
The decision to stage strike was reached during meeting held on February 2nd by the academic staff of Rumbek University.
Manyuon said that they are also demanding the payment of ticket allowance arrears starting from 2019 to 2024.
“We can’t operate without salaries for such a long period and therefore, we have given them seven days such that they pay us because we have nothing and schools are now opening, we don’t have money to register our kids in schools,” he said.
Manyuon disclosed that lecturers are facing difficulties in enrolling their children in schools due to delays in payment of their salaries.
“We are tired of delay of salary always; we want the government to pay us on time because our institution is a productive institution operating at any time,” he added.
In similar development, lecturers at the University of Bahr el Ghazal in Western Bahr el Ghazal State on Monday also threatened to go on strike due to non-payment of salaries.
The University lecturers have found it difficult to cope amid the prevailing economic hardship forcing them to resort to industrial action.
Rumbek University is among the five public universities in the country alongside the University of Bahr el Ghazal, the University of Juba, Dr. John Garang Memorial University of Science and Technology and Upper Nile University.
