'No case against City Power boss Xulu'

Johannesburg utility City Power is refusing to suspend its MD, Sicelo Xulu, who is under fire over alleged financial irregularities, because it says there is no convincing evidence against him.

This month mayor Herman Mashaba announced a forensic investigation into City Power tenders and alleged corruption.

But ANC veteran Frank Chikane, who is chairman of the utility, said in an interview this week that the DA mayor expected City Power to suspend Xulu solely on the basis of hearsay.

The ANC, which lost control of Johannesburg in the local elections last year, has accused Mashaba of being hellbent on getting rid of senior city officials he perceives as loyal to the party. 

Last week Mashaba threatened to take action against City Power for its refusal to suspend Xulu. He told the Sunday Times he had received fresh evidence linking Xulu to wrongdoing.

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But Chikane said he needed to see proof before he could accede to Mashaba's request for Xulu to be suspended over the disappearance of R120-million from City Power records, disputes over a R4-million payment and his role in the city's R1-billion smart meter contract.

He said most of the allegations had already been addressed and no evidence had been found against Xulu or other City Power officials.

"So I said to them: 'You need to give me information because I must go to the board.' I can't do it because this is an appointment of the board," Chikane said.

"The following day they gave me the list of allegations, which were really based on whistleblowers' reports. [They said] these are the allegations. We got that information [and] they were supposed to give us more information, and I met his [Mashaba's] lawyer, who then explained the situation.

"We went and looked at those allegations and many of [them], except for two, were already dealt with before."

Chikane said the board was also reluctant to suspend Xulu for fear of incurring a multimillion-rand payout for failing to follow correct labour procedure.

"I even made an example of the president acting on some senior person and he ended up paying R17-million," Chikane said, referring to the premature departure of Mxolisi Nxasana as head of the National Prosecuting Authority in 2015.

The Presidency paid a settlement of R17.3-million.

"It could be purely on a technicality and they will go nail you and then you lose R17-million for the company.

"Now, the shareholder will say 'I will take the responsibility, don't worry', and I said: 'No, the people who go to jail are the directors.'

"It is not the shareholder, because the decision is that of the directors, not of the shareholder," said Chikane.