Khaya Koko

Dada Morero dimmed the lights of the bright future prospects that Johannesburg’s residents had for years before his arrival by ignoring his own finance department’s warnings for 10 months about City Power’s catastrophic R16-billion deficit, writes Khaya Koko.

Dada Morero dimmed the lights of the bright future prospects that Johannesburg’s residents had for years before his arrival by ignoring his own finance department’s warnings for 10 months about City Power’s catastrophic R16-billion deficit, writes Khaya Koko.

Evidence of the apparent gross inflation of prices, more than double the amount paid for a fraction of the work done in the Gauteng premier’s power programme, was seized by investigators probing alleged City Power corruption totalling R500 million.

City of Johannesburg-owned energy company City Power has been rocked by more revelations about a jobs-for-relatives scheme allegedly run by its senior managers, while the utility continues to haemorrhage millions of rands a month in what its board suspected was mismanagement.

More than 6 000 unlawfully appointed Gauteng crime prevention wardens, launched by Premier Panyaza Lesufi, are at risk of unemployment as the entity responsible for retraining them is bankrupt, with no capacity to undertake the mammoth task.

For the past six years, City Power has failed to sell the electricity it purchases in bulk from Eskom, and Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero was aware of the financial crisis threatening residents with widespread darkness.