The Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) has called for the appointment of new leadership at City Power within the first 100 days of Johannesburg's next administration. This is part of a turnaround strategy to stabilise the electricity distributor's finances, improve collections, and repair failing infrastructure. The proposals, outlined in the CDE report "Powering Joburg's Turnaround," are aimed at addressing the utility's financial and operational challenges.
The CDE report, released ahead of the November 4 municipal elections, suggests that the new administration should prioritise leadership and operational changes over attempts to absorb the utility into the city administration. The report includes a strategy for the first 100 days, set out by a senior businessman with experience in electricity utility turnaround and management. According to CDE executive director Ann Bernstein, decisive actions are needed to stabilise leadership, secure cash, stop financial bleeding, and ensure a stable electricity supply.
City Power's current acting CEO, Charles Tlouane, took over after the resignation of Tshifularo Mashava in April. The CDE report flags changes to the recruitment criteria for a permanent CEO, broadening the experience requirement and making an engineering degree an added advantage. The city should appoint an interim crisis executive with electricity distribution and turnaround experience during the first month after the new administration is elected, supported by a small team reporting directly to the mayor.
The proposed strategy involves a series of steps over the first 100 days. During the second month, the focus would shift to reducing losses and rebuilding relations with customers through town hall meetings and a smart prepayment programme targeting areas with high electricity losses. Preparations would include reconciling customer and meter records, securing installation capacity, and deploying teams to investigate illegal connections and meter tampering.
By day 100, the city should have appointed a permanent CEO and finance chief, demonstrated improvements in collections and electricity losses, and reported progress to customers. City Power faces significant challenges, including an infrastructure backlog of R44.25bn and persistent financial shortfalls, with a deficit of R4.3bn in 2025. The utility reported 2.1-million forced interruptions between July 2025 and March 2026, with restoration taking 11 hours on average.
The CDE also proposes giving City Power greater certainty over its revenue, with transfers to the municipality made explicit, predictable, and affordable. Contributions to other municipal services would continue, but withdrawals should not compromise electricity operations and investment. Private companies could help improve metering, correct billing records, and maintain infrastructure, with payment linked to independently verified results.
The CDE cautions against immediately collapsing municipal utilities into the city administration, citing concerns that restructuring would consume scarce management capacity without resolving weak finances, corruption, or shortages of skills. The report emphasises that Johannesburg's voters have an important opportunity on November 4 to consider the state of the city's utilities and what should be done to fix them.
Key points
- The Centre for Development and Enterprise proposes appointing new leadership at City Power within 100 days of the new administration.
- City Power faces an infrastructure backlog of R44.25bn and persistent financial shortfalls.
- The CDE recommends merit-based appointments in senior positions to fix City Power's challenges.
