City Power denies claims its headquarters raided by Hawks

City Power has denied claims that its headquarters were raided by the Hawks.

This comes after reports emerged on Friday that the crime-fighting unit raided City Power’s Johannesburg headquarters as part of an investigation into alleged corruption and financial mismanagement involving irregular payments and inflated contracts totalling more than R500 million.

Alleged corruption

According to the reports, City Power’s executive management is also being investigated for allegedly allowing more than R335 million to be looted from its maintenance budget in six months – from May 2023 to October of that year – on frivolous purchases that included air fresheners, pens, trolley mops and copper cables that officers claim were not delivered.

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Hawks raid

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena confirmed that the Directorate of Investigating Priority Crimes, also known as the Hawks, visited its premises to deliver a formal request for information about the business.

“There was no raid, no confiscation of documents, files or IT equipment. And there was no interrogation.

“We can, however, confirm that members of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) did visit City Power and delivered a formal request for information (RFI) to the business,” Mangena said.

Mangena said  City Power will cooperate fully with this “lawful request” by the Hawks.

Internal control processes

Last year, the auditor-general’s report into City Power’s affairs flagged its internal control processes.

The report recommended an investigation which was concluded in March 2025.  City Power’s investigation revealed collusion between employees and service providers, serious breaches in procurement and payment processes, fraudulent job numbers and duplicate approvals.

This led to City Power suffering significant financial losses.

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Dismissals

The power utility has since dismissed the implicated employees and laid criminal complaints.

“Out of all cases that have already been finalised and those that are still ongoing, we discovered that 12 electricians, eight security officers, five team leaders and several senior managers had been implicated in serious criminal conduct such as cable theft, fraud and soliciting bribes,” City Power said.

“While we are aggressively fighting the scourge of theft and vandalism, we discovered that several employees, including team leaders, electricians and even our own contracted security officers, were involved in stealing and destroying essential infrastructure.

“We have also uncovered that the challenge we have been battling with about the shortage of materials was not only related to heightened demand for replacement equipment, but that our own employees were simply handing these tools to contractors from the stores and supposedly benefiting from those transactions,” the utility said.

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