Day: June 21, 2022

At least 12 teachers from various secondary and primary Schools in Rumbek, Lakes State, were on Monday arrested and detained at the Panda Military Barracks for rejecting January and February salary arrears that did not reflect the 100 percent increment in their salaries.

Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Monday, a civil society activist in Lakes State, Daniel Laat Kon, condemned the state’s education for unlawfully detaining the teachers in the military barracks and appealed to Governor Rin Tueny Mabor to immediately release the teachers.

“It is very clear in the constitution that every citizen has a right to freedom of expression and assembly and this is what the teachers have done,” he said. “The reason why the teachers refused to receive the salary is that the ministry of education in Lakes State is forcing the teachers to receive 5,000 SSP including all the allowances instead of paying them 22,763 SSP which was announced by the national ministry of general education and instruction.”

“I witnessed the 12 teachers being arrested and I only know a few of them and they are being kept in Rumbek Panda military barracks,” he added.

According to Laat, the new salary structure which was announced on 1 July 2021 has never been implemented by the ministry of education in Lakes State.

“In the old salary structure, a headmaster of a primary or secondary school in grade 7 received a salary of 1,500 SSP but based on the new salary structure, it increased by 100 percent,” he explained. “There was an increment in July last year where a headmaster in grade 7 is supposed to receive 22,763 SSP and a deputy and senior teacher are supposed to receive 20,078 SSP. But this structure since last year has never paid by the state ministry of education in Lakes State.”

When contacted, the state education minister, Nelson Makoi Makur, denied the arrest and detention of the 12 teachers in Rumbek town and said there is no reason for teachers to refuse their pay.

“Something was miscommunicated in the increment of salaries. The 100 percent (salary increment) was implemented last year in September,” he said. “40 percent are chalk allowances for the teachers that teach in the class and what we shall do as the state government is clear those who teach in the class with chalk allowances.”

“The reason why we are here in the ministry is to do what will make education good for the teachers. The salary of teachers has come and it has been entered into the account of the ministry of education,” he added.

Some of the detained teachers are Ruben Majak Nhial, Ater Ahou, Makur Machok, Emmanuel Mabor, Marol, Ater Ariau, Mabor Malith, Gor Gak, William Poth, and others.

Source: Radio Tamazuj

South Sudan President Salva Kiir is lobbying six other regional leaders to support the political crisis in Sudan, an aide disclosed.

Kiir’s security affairs advisor, Tutkew Gatluak Manime said the South Sudanese leader is currently in Kenya to witness signing of a cessation of hostilities agreement between the Congolese government and March 23 (M23) rebels.

He said the South Sudanese leader would seize the opportunity to persuade regional leader to back efforts aimed at ending the political crisis in neighbouring Sudan.

“He [Kiir] will use that occasion as an opportunity to solicit the support of regional leaders for the Sudanese peace initiative,” explained Manime.

The South Sudanese leader is reportedly lobbying for regional involvement in efforts to ensure the 2 October, 2020 accord is implemented. The peace agreement enabled armed and unarmed opposition groups in Sudan to join the transitional government, thus expanding the representation of the country’s peripheries during the interim period before elections.

However, the peace deal excluded two most powerful rebel movements.

The interim government was envisaged to negotiate with holdout rebels to bring them into the transition. Sudan’s international partners should press for security sector reform that decreases the size and political dominance of a newly expanded military while funding and supporting the authorities’ spending commitments in the peripheries.

In August 2019, the Transitional Military Council (TMC) and the civilian Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC), signed a power-sharing agreement.

That in turn led to the formation of a hybrid civilian-military government tasked with revitalizing the ailing economy and steering the country to elections. The signatories also agreed to talks with insurgents to end decades of conflict in areas neglected by Khartoum. The talks took place in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, leading to an accord on 3 October, 2020.

The agreement excludes Sudan’s two most powerful and politically relevant armed movements: a SPLA/M-N faction led by Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, which operates in the Two Areas, and a SLA/M faction led by Abdel Wahid al-Nur, which maintains bases in central Darfur.

While Wahid’s movement draws significant support from the Fur ethnic group and the internally displaced in Darfur, Aziz’s faction enjoys backing from the Nuba and other groups in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.

However, unlike the agreement’s rebel signatories, which are militarily degraded following a string of defeats by Khartoum in 2015 and 2016, the two holdout groups have substantial strength on the ground. Both have resisted signing the agreement and are unlikely to do so out of discomfort with the security forces’ continued dominance in the transitional government and their insistence on a credible national dialogue as a precursor to an inclusive peace deal, among others.

Source: Sudan Tribune