Bashir replaces his military boss

KHARTOUM: Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir replaced the head of his joint chiefs of staff yesterday with a general who has played a leading role in negotiations with the country’s antigovernment rebels.

Lieutenant-General Emadeddine Mostafa Adawi replaces Lieutenant-General Mostafa Obeid, who had held the position for less than three years, a military spokesman said.

The move comes as part of a reshuffle of the military in which Bashir replaced several of his most senior military leaders. The armed forces are a key player in Sudanese politics. Bashir himself was an army officer when he seized power in a 1989 coup.

The military spokesman gave no reason for the change. – Reuters

Sihle Manda

THE eThekwini city manager, S’bu Sithole, has slammed the brakes on the cutting of overgrown grass and weed-clearing contracts, barely a week after R60 million was approved by the community and emergency services committee.

Sithole withdrew the matter, and four others, from yesterday’s executive committee meeting agenda.

“Those (contracts) dealing with weeds and grass cutting, we’ll ask that unit head (Thembinkosi Ngcobo) submit a report on everything done to deal with challenges faced on these issues,” he said.

The Mercury understands that grass cutting and verge clearance had virtually come to a halt since July last year after contracts expired.

Ngcobo, last week addressing the emergency and community services committee, said his department was “crafting ways” of dealing with the grass-cutting issue.

Problems started last year when the previous contract was about to expire.

The new contract for a 36month period was advertised in February last year, closed on March 27, and was still in the process of being evaluated by supply chain management, the report said.

Grass cutting is done by co-operatives and is believed to have been politicised, with ANC factions accused of using them to secure support.

Defending the move, Sithole said: “We currently have cooperatives (206) that are in place. However, in view of the challenges we are facing, we believe that we need more time to define a new approach in terms of how the procurement of co-ops is supposed to be done. But also to limit a situation where it’s as though we are favouring certain co-ops at the expense of others.”

He said they wanted to find a way to “spread the cake to as many co-ops as possible. We must also discuss it with… councillors and equally explain to communities.

This way, he said, “we give people a fair opportunity to participate in this process”.