Note to Editors: Please find an English soundbite by Cllr Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku here
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Johannesburg is vindicated as reports emerge that City Power has paid R12 million to a politically connected contractor before any work had been done at all.
In light of these revelations on News24, the DA has again written to the Auditor General, the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and National Treasury to urgently intervene in Johannesburg’s continued governance crisis.
In November 2024 we wrote to these same entities urging an investigation into allegations of fraud, corruption and possible violations of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) at City Power.
We were forced to ask for national intervention last year, as our Promotion of Access to Information Act requests were either stonewalled, or denied citing “POPIA”. Our questions were simple:
- List of City Power’s contractors;
- Value of work done broken down per contractor;
- Number of times the same contractor was awarded different projects;
- Amounts paid to contractors; and
- Quality control sheets and sign off prior to payments being made
The question, as our continued efforts and requests are ignored, now becomes: how high up does the collusion to hide corruption go?
Both the Auditor General and the Department of COGTA acknowledged our letter on 04 December 2024 and we await further updates on the progress of these investigations.
Transparency, accountability and rule of law is non-negotiable and we will always stand on the side of residents.