Edison Power Gauteng, whose chairperson and founder is Vivian Reddy, has called a recent article where Reddy is referred to as a "Zuma pal“ misleading and false.
The article accused the businessman of defrauding the government of over R40 million through bribery, corruption and the payment of kickbacks.
“The yellow-journalism" style of putting the Zuma name in the headline to sensationalise it must be rejected with the contempt it deserves. The intent was to piggyback on the frantic Zuma wave and the national crisis sweeping our country,” the media statement said.
According to the company, Edison Power Gauteng has never contracted directly with the government but was a domestic subcontractor to construction companies, Group Five.
The company said the claim that there was collusion between an Edison Power executive and the consultant to ’swindle" Group Five is nothing but a work of fiction.
According to the company, the money that Reddy is accused of defrauding the government of comes from normal cost escalations following project scope change due to additional end-user requirements and the contract timeline was also extended by four years.
“These simple facts could have been easily verified before writing the false, defamatory, and malicious single-source article,” the company said.
The company said the one-man baseless affidavit is a part of a fight-back campaign by implicated staff against Edison Power.
An internal investigation by the company revealed massive fraud, corruption and embezzlement of about R150-million by senior employees and a financial director.
The company has accused some of the employees implicated in the cases of attempting to collude with newspapers and journalists to deflect and undermine Edison Power.
Law enforcement agencies are dealing with the cases reported by the company against the employees.
Edison Power Gauteng has since handed over the forensic report to the Hawks Serious Commercial Crimes Unit in Germiston so that the corrupt employees are brought to book.
BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE