City receives damning Forensic Report on City Power

3 July 2017

Last week, the City Power’s Board met following the final submission of Size Ntsaluba Gobodo Incorporated’s damning, forensic report into allegations of widespread corruption and mismanagement, costing the public billions of Rand.

On 24 February 2017, City Power Managing Director (MD), Sicelo Xulu, was placed on special leave. Noting the contents of the final report, detailing serious misconduct on the part of the MD, the Board would ordinarily institute a disciplinary hearing, however the MD’s contract will expire at the end of August and the City would not be able to complete the disciplinary process in that time. It is for this reason that the Board has taken a decision to immediately release the MD from his contractual responsibilities.

This decision – which I fully support – will begin the process of restoring good governance and ending corruption at the power utility.

Weak corporate governance and corruption at City Power have for too long been allowed to rob our residents of much needed service delivery. This has most recently been made evident by alleged corruption and gross mismanagement of the Eldorado Park and Hopefield substation contracts where millions of Rand were paid to a contractor who has not performed the work required.

Had City Power’s governance and management systems not been eroded by corruption, quality services would have been delivered to the residents of these communities.

I have also instructed the City’s Group Forensic and Investigation Service Unit to extract relevant information from the final report for the possible institution of criminal charges against numerous officials implicated; the full contents of the forensic report can thus not be revealed at this sensitive stage.

To begin arresting the deep rooted corruption and mismanagement at the power utility, the board also decided to appoint the City’s Executive Director for Environmental and Infrastructure Services, Tiaan Ehlers, as Acting MD. The recruitment process for a new MD is currently underway and will be completed within the next 60 days.

Going forward, our priority will be to bring stability to City Power as we finalise the appointment of a new MD.

Issued by Tony Taverna-Turisan, Director of Communications, Office of the Executive Mayor, City of Johannesburg, 3 July 2017