JU administration block

The Minister of Education, Science and Technology is calling upon university lecturers to end their strike.

On Monday, lecturers from the University of Juba, Doctor Garang Memorial University in Bor and Bahr el Ghazal universities staged a strike.

Lecturers have called for reinstatement of allowances and 14 months of back pay.

The Minister, Doctor John Gai, said the lecturers should refer to a letter written by the government –committing itself to paying all arrears and allowances by January next year.

“The Minister of Finance and the cabinet have agreed that in January we are going to reinstate the allowances of the academic staff and that is not a ‘may be or if’,” he said.

“That is what we have written to them and these are commitments.

“In as far as we are concerned, the strike should be over, they have not yet come back to us and respond to us in writing.

“No government will negotiate with anybody when the requirements of the strike have been met.

“This is a commitment of the cabinet and the President, we agreed on that.”

However, the Academic Staff Association says the strike will continue, claiming the commitment by the government did not meet the demands of the lecturers.

“We had a meeting today [Tuesday] and after deliberation, it was concluded that the latest letter from the honorable minister did not meet the demands that was originally submitted to the government,” Prof Leonzio Onek, the Secretary General of the University Academic Staff Association, told Eye Radio.

“So, as a consequence, the assembly reaffirmed their earlier decision that the strike must continue.”