- PetroSA Group CEO, Mr Xolile Sizani, has been suspended pending an investigation.
- PetroSA has confirmed as much in a statement.
- Sizani was only eight months into the job.
- The troubled state owned petroleum entity added that they have appointed Mr Mmete Fusi as the acting group chief executive officer effective immediately.
PetroSA has recently been taken to court over the Gazprom/Equator tenders. Phezulu Natural Energy Resources has asked the Cape Town high court to force PetroSA to disclose documents showing how and why it selected Russia’s Gazprombank and scandal-plagued Equator Holdings for multi-billion-rand gas deals. Phezulu was one of the bidders for the tender to restart the gas-to-liquids refinery in Mossel Bay.
In court papers, it alleges that PetroSA split the tender and illegally handed half to Equator Holdings, a company that scored 0 points out of 100 in the adjudication process. PetroSA has refused PAIA’s from journalists and members of Parliament in a bid to keep the controversial deals hidden from public scrutiny. Phezulu’s court bid would force PetroSA to disclose these same documents as part of the legal discovery process. Read more
In another controversy, PetroSA entrusted a potential R21.6-billion gas infrastructure deal to notorious wheeler dealer Lawrence Mulaudzi. Three months later the deal was dead, killed not by environmental groups or Russian sanctions, but by 34-year-old soccer player Cheslyn Chase Jampies. Read more
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
