South Sudanese students on scholarship in Zimbabwe say they risk not sitting for their examinations due to delay by the government to clear their tuition arrears, according to their representative.

In March, the 150 students were denied accommodation and lessons by five public universities in demand for more than 1.7 million US dollars.

As a result, the students stormed and occupied the embassy in Harare.

However, in June, the Ministry of Higher Education paid half a million after the council of Ministers approved it and the students were allowed to resume classes.

Moses Kat, who is the students’ leader, said the rest of the cash which was supposed to be covered in an installment in August, has not been paid.

He said some of the students have now been denied lectures, accommodation, and food by the institutions again.

“We have institutions right now whereby students don’t have accommodation, whereby they don’t have food to eat and then secondly we are approaching exams; the exams are at the corner and once the money has not been paid, then there is no way you can go to an exam room,” said Mr Kat.

Meanwhile, the Undersecretary in the Ministry of Higher Education said they have not received any complaints from students on issues related to tuition arrears.

“The attaché who is our representative there did not call me and he did not inform me,” said Prof Bol Deng.

“But if you have received the information from the students officially, I have not received it.”

Professor Bol added that the ministry paid part of the arrears in August and is waiting for the Ministry of Finance to approve the rest.