City Power, Hawks to face off in court over recent search & seizure ops at utility's headquarters

Johannesburg City Power and the Hawks are set to face off in the Gauteng High Court on Tuesday over recent search and seizure operations at the utility’s headquarters.

City Power wants the court to declare the operations unlawful, claiming the search warrants used in the operations were invalid.

Over the past two months, the Hawks have raided City Power’s offices twice as part of an ongoing investigation into several questionable contracts totalling more than half a billion rand.

The latest Hawks search and seizure at City Power’s offices was triggered by a questionable R64 million contract for the supply of electricity transformers.

However, the transformers were never delivered by the agreed deadline of December 2023, despite payments having been made.

Last week, the Hawks visited the utility’ headquarters to obtain a purchase order related to the contract in question.

In its court application, City Power is seeking the return of all documents, data, and devices seized during the Hawks' recent operation.

The utility argues that the warrant authorised mirror imaging of all its digital systems and communications, despite the investigation being limited to just one or two transactions.