The Joburg executive who “lost” R2billion for a city entity through a slew of brazen corruption allegations has been “resurrected” to run a major R259million consultancy contract.
The Star has established that Sicelo Xulu, the former City Power managing director who left the Joburg-owned company in 2017 under a dark mismanagement cloud, has returned “via the back door” as a director of a firm that won a share of a R259m “consultancy” tender at the city entity.
The Star has learnt that City Power's executive management was shocked at a meeting on Wednesday when Xulu was surprisingly unveiled as the “consultant” from Fever Tree Consulting, the firm which would be working with the entity’s team.
Before Fever Tree was given the contract in October last year, Xulu’s name was not on the original list of directors and was “snuck in” after the fact.
Official City Power documents showed that Fever Tree, along with six other companies, were part of a three-year “provision of strategic partners for a consulting services” contract.
The uproar from senior City Power insiders, who spoke on condition of anonymity, hinged on the fact that Xulu had plunged the entity's finances into a R2bn overdraft through alleged corrupt transactions.
This included R60m that was budgeted by Xulu to build two substations in Eldorado Park and Hopefield, which were never delivered.
“The people of Eldorado Park struggled during the winter because of a lack of power, even though R60m was released during Xulu’s tenure to build the necessary infrastructure. Then there is the R3bn overdraft that City Power is dealing with,” said a source.
This was echoed by the EFF in Joburg, which said on Friday that Xulu’s return was part of mayor Geoff Makhubo’s “gangsters paradise” administration, which “resurrected (Xulu) to run billions from the grave after he left City Power with a R2bn overdraft”.
“The prodigal son Sicelo Xulu was at the helm of City Power when the company awarded a dubious multimillion-rand tender to build ghost substations, the Hopefield and Eldorado Park substation, which never saw the light of day,” the EFF said on Friday.
The Star sent detailed questions to Xulu on Saturday and left him a voice message on Sunday but he didn't respond to WhatsApp or voice messages as well as his phone.
Questions sent to Mlimandlela Ndamase, spokesperson for mayor Makhubo, on Saturday also went unanswered after he had acknowledged the receipt thereof.
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said the entity noted the EFF’s statement, but that the appointment of Fever Tree “followed the company's normal procurement processes, which makes it impossible to favour any individual or company”.
He did not answer questions on Xulu’s name being missing from Fever Tree’s original directors' list nor the shock for City Power’s executive management on Wednesday to learn of his return.
“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.
“It is therefore not possible for anyone to influence all committees to favour any person or company. The insinuation that some politician, within the City of Joburg, may have directed or influenced the company to award the tender to the former chief executive due to what the EFF calls, his ‘blue-eye’ status within a particular political party is therefore not possible nor practical,” Mangena said.
“The chief executive, chairperson of the board, all board members and political leaders across the City of Joburg do not form part nor participate in any of the procurement committees,” Mangena added.
The Star