A second City Power employee accused of extorting a contractor was this week suspended by the entity. The man is one of three people implicated in the alleged extortion of a man who had a long-running association with the utility. Two of the alleged extortionists are still City Power employees, while the third – identified as a runner for the other two – left the entity last year before moving to a neigbouring municipality.
The whistle-blower claimed the trio had conspired to extort roughly R2.6 million from him since 2020, often in large cash payments ranging from R100 000 to R250 000 or more He spoke out after they had repeatedly attempted to extract R1 million from him by threatening him with the publication of news articles that would implicate him in document fraud. Second City Power official suspended The material submitted by the complainant featured an affidavit deposed to police, an audio recording of a conversation with the woman identified as the runner, as well as text messages with the freshly suspended official.
City Power confirmed to The Citizen that the Johannesburg municipality’s group forensic and investigation services (GFIS) was investigating the matter. One of the City Power officials had already been suspended when the recent complaint was filed, with the second receiving a suspension letter this week. Acknowledgement of the precautionary suspension letter was signed by the second alleged extortionist on 21 April.
“After careful consideration of the seriousness of this allegation, management has taken a decision to place you on precautionary suspension pending the investigation of the case,” reads the letter seen by The Citizen. The letter ordered the man from City Power premises, forced him to hand over company property and to not contact fellow employees. “We have a reason to believe that your continued presence in the workplace has the potential of hampering with the investigation into the alleged misconduct,” the letter continued.
Earlier attempts to contact the woman identified as the runner resulted in her declining to comment, with one of the suspended officials threatening legal action following the publication of The Citizen’s initial article on 14 April. No contact in recent day When contacted by The Citizen on Wednesday, the man who identified his alleged extortionists to City Power was unaware of the additional suspension. The whistle-blower stated that he had not had any contact with his alleged extortionists since the article was published.
However, he was still limiting his movements and monitoring his surroundings as his fears had not yet been allayed. The whistle-blower had worked for City Power for eight years before opening his own electrical engineering and maintenance company. He dismissed any suggestions that he himself had benefitted unduly in securing his contracts with City Power. “I spoke out because I needed people to know what those officials were doing and how they were treating me,” he told The Citizen, stressing his willingness to cooperate with any investigations.