Sudan — The Committee for the Demands of Radio and Television Workers in the Various States of Sudan continued to schedule a strike, demanding their legitimate rights in the matter of subordination and the first chapter of salaries, while the North Darfur and Blue Nile regions did not implement the strike.
The employees of the Radio and Television Corporation of South Darfur carried out the directives to stop working according to the schedule set by the five-year committee that represents workers in the different states of the country, as the workers returned to work on Sunday, and the stoppage will continue on Monday.
The Secretary-General of the National Umma Party, representative of the Centre for Freedom and Change in South Darfur, Hafez Omar, visited the headquarters of the commission on Saturday, met with the workers' committee, listened to their demands, and received a copy of the memos with which the committee addressed the concerned authorities at the centre level.
Hafez promised to support the radio and television workers and deliver their message to the center, while the members of the committee praised the gesture of the revolutionary bodies.
The decision to stop the broadcasting organisations sparked widespread controversy on social media, where a large number of newspaper correspondents, news agencies, radio stations and government channels declared their solidarity with the employees of the broadcasting and television organizations, and citizens of South Darfur expressed their annoyance at the interruption of the voice of Radio Nyala, especially during the month of Ramadan, when they used to get acquainted with Iftar time on the radio, which caused confusion in the past two days.
Ramadan
The Southern Darfur Committee had announced, on the first day of the month of Ramadan, that all workers had stopped working in response to the five-year committee's decision, which resulted in the cancellation of a Ramadan radio interview with the state's governor, Hamid al-Tijani Hanoun.
It is noteworthy that the government agencies did not comment on the suspension of the state bodies of radio and television until Sunday morning, and the members of the five-year committee expect an escalation and procedures that will affect the departments of the bodies who did not abide by the implementation of the suspension of work to claim their rights.
Kordofan
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
The workers of the Radio and Television Corporation in West Kordofan declared their commitment to the scheduled strike announced by the workers' demand committee to demand a resolution of the bodies' affiliation. Ismail Bakhit Hamed, head of the demand committee of workers in the West Kordofan Radio and Television Corporation, told Radio Dabanga that some bodies did not join the strike and did not stop broadcasting. However, the number of those who committed themselves to the strike is constantly increasing, stressing that the strike is one of the legitimate means to solve workers' issues, and it is expected that it will come to fruition soon.
Darfur
Workers at the Radio and Television Corporation in North Darfur and the Blue Nile region revealed that the strike decided by the Five-Year Committee had not been implemented to demand the entitlements of the corporations' workers.
Workers in North Darfur indicated that the administration did not respond to the strike, and representatives of the authority in the Supreme Committee of all bodies apologized for not being assigned to follow up the dues of the authority because of the non-implementation of the strike.
Magda Abdullah, program manager at Blue Nile Radio, said that the strike was not implemented due to the lack of clarity of the five-year committee with state radio stations. She indicated that the committee was dissolved days before the announcement of the strike, and then reconstituted without the knowledge of the bodies, and that the decision to strike was announced through the WhatsApp group, and the bodies were not notified officially.
