Acting City Power chief executive loses top post after five months on the job.
City Power acting chief executive Malope Ramagaga has been removed from the position only five months after being appointed.
The Star reports that staff at the utility received an internal memo which informed them that Ramagaga had been removed from the position and that City Power group executive for metering services Nancy Maluleke would now be acting head.
Ramagaga’s appointment was queried by the staff and unions, who questioned his qualifications, and a source within the entity says the board had no choice but to remove him from the position because his performance was declining. He failed on some crucial decisions regarding renewal of contracts, which led to outages during June and July.
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said Ramagaga was still general manager at the power utility even though he had been removed as acting chief executive.
“The decision to replace Ramagaga is in line with City Power’s human resources policies and City of Joburg guidelines, which allow for and encourage senior managers to act in positions, and rotation to happen on a regular basis,” Mangena said.
Ramagaga was group executive for enterprise support when he was appointed as the acting chief executive in June. He replaced the sitting CEO, Lerato Setshedi, who had been placed on special leave.
Ramagaga’s predecessor Setshedi is expected to appear before the South Gauteng High Court to defend himself after the entity failed to provide the court with information regarding a R1.5 billion tender for about 60 companies.
Prior to being placed on special leave, Setshedi had raised issues with the procurement and according to the source, the information the court wanted was available but Ramagaga, who was acting on Setshedi’s behalf, had not submitted it.
Acting Judge Frank Snyckers ruled that City Power must embark on emergency procurement using a closed list of bidders that have already been assessed. The judge said the emergency process must be completed no later than the end of the next month and that the companies currently contracted must continue as an interim measure.
Mangena said that the utility was on track with the court order. “In terms of the court order, we have started the procurement process as per the court order. We will submit a progress report to the court by the end of the month.”
The disputed tender has also been referred to the City of Joburg’s investigative unit headed by former Gauteng Hawks head Lieutenant-General Shadrack Sibiya.
