City Power confident no bias was given for consultancy tender after former exec takes appointment at benefiting firm
JOBURG – According to City Power the CEO, chairperson of the board, all board members and political leaders across the City of Johannesburg are not part of nor do they participate in any procurement committees.
City Power is confident that all company procedures were followed after allegations of a biased tender procurement were put forward by the Economic Freedom Fighter (EFF) political party.
In a statement on 25 September, the party condemned the recent appointment of former controversial City Power managing director Sicelo Xulu at a consulting firm which was awarded a multimillion-rand tender by the City entity in December last year.
Xulu was let go from the power utility in 2017 for what was described as ‘serious misconduct’ by former City of Johannesburg executive mayor Herman Mashaba.
“The return of Xulu to City Power will see him running and managing the entity’s billions of rands from the grave after he left City Power with a R2-million overdraft,” said EFF Johannesburg region chairperson Musa Novela.
According to City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena, the power utility ‘followed the company’s normal procurement process’ which saw over 40 companies respond to the tender advertisement last year. “The company’s procurement process goes through various adjudication and evaluation committees which are staffed by professional and qualified personnel all of whom are employees of the company,” he said.
Mangena added that the CEO, chairperson of the board, all board members and political leaders across the City of Johannesburg are also not part of nor do they participate in any procurement committees.
“The insinuation that some politician within the City of Johannesburg may have directed or influenced the company to award the tender to the former CEO due to what the EFF calls, his ‘blue eye’ status within a particular political party is therefore not possible nor practical,” concluded Mangena.
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