Certificates withheld in dispute over scholarships

South Sudanese students who graduated in Zimbabwe under government scholarships from 2018 to 2020 have vowed to continue protesting in Juba, the South Sudanese capital, until their government has paid over the US$1.4 million in scholarship money it owes to various Zimbabwean universities.

The universities are withholding the academic certificates of more than 120 students.

Maker Makur, who graduated with a degree in mining engineering from the Midlands State University in Zimbabwe last year and the spokesperson of the protesting students, told University World News that the protests will continue until the government clears the arrears and the students receive their certificates.

“We are more than 100 here and have been doing our peaceful protests since last week. The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance [Garang Majak Bol] has told us to be patient and wait until the end of February, but we have told him that our protests will continue until that day comes,” an emotional Makur said.

“As students, we feel like the time for negotiations is over because we’ve tried to talk to the government many times before, but nothing worked.

“We are now fed up with what our government is doing and we have no other option but to protest. Our intention is to make the public, and relevant authorities who might help, aware of our situation.”

Students feel abused

Makur said that the students felt abused by the governments of Zimbabwe and South Sudan.

“Why do the two governments make us suffer for something that we, students, are not responsible for?” he asked.

“We have no power to pay the money; our only rightful material is the certificates which the Zimbabwean government has denied us access to.

“We thought the Zimbabwe government would feel pity for us and let us get our certificates while the two governments arrange when and how they should pay each other,” he said.

The scholarships were initiated by the governments of Zimbabwe and South Sudan in 2015 but, by 2016, there were already challenges, with several Zimbabwean universities threatening to force students out of residences.

The South Sudanese students had to protest at their country’s embassy in Harare on numerous occasions as they struggled to survive in Zimbabwe.

The first batch of students finished their programmes in 2018 and Zimbabwean universities initially refused to let them graduate.

They later allowed the students to attend graduation ceremonies but withheld their certificates. The graduates of 2019 and 2020 faced similar challenges.

In November 2020, the students engaged the South Sudanese minister of finance who promised to pay the arrears and sent a letter of instruction to his undersecretary. However, after three months, no payment has yet been made.

No agreement between governments

University World News also spoke to Juac Deng Kur who graduated with a degree in chemical engineering from the Harare Institute of Technology in 2019.

“We have been engaging the government of South Sudan to pay our outstanding fees or at least engage its counterpart government so that students can get their documents,” he said.

“It is sad that the South Sudan government is making no effort to give an assurance to the Zimbabwe government. I am sure that, if our government [would] engage [with] the Zimbabwean government, they could easily come to an understanding and we could be issued with our certificates.”

Kur said the majority of the students were doing STEM-related degrees (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and were sent to acquire skills they could bring back to help local universities and their country.

“But now we are failing to get jobs because we have no academic papers. We don’t know how the government plans to recover their money if the graduates in which the money was invested are not being utilised,” he said.