Gov’t offices closed in Jonglei amid protest by civil servants

JUBA – The government of South Sudan’s Jonglei state has closed down its offices after the civil servants in the state decided to go on strike over salary increment row with the state government, Jonglei State Information Minister Veronica William, said.

Last week, the state government announced that it would effect the civil salary increment directed by President Salva Kiir Mayardit during the last year’s independence anniversary, but the state authorizes decided to cut the salary to boost security budget.

On Monday, civil servants took to the streets to protest the government decision to cut the salary and this, according to Hon. Veronica, has been repeated today forcing the government to close down its offices and delay the long-awaited re-opening of state parliament.

“This morning, our civil servants shut down the General Secretariat and ministries. No government office is operational. All the ministers are indoors because the government is shut down,” Veronica said, according to Radio Tamazuj.

“By now, we should have been at a sitting opening the parliament but we woke up to this development,” she added.

The senior state government official further said discussion between the state government and the civil servants were underway to bring the matter to an end and urged the protesters to make their demands in a peaceful manner.

“We believe this will not go on for the whole of today. We are engaging the civil servants so that we get a solution to this problem,” she said.

“What they are saying is that they want back the money which our governor topped up to their salaries. Our message is that they should make their demand peacefully,” she said.