Business Leadership South Africa CEO Busisiwe Mavuso – who has had an ongoing public disagreement with Eskom’s chairperson Mteto Nyati over the creation, with the transmission assets, of an independent Transmission System Operator (TSO) – says she does not have confidence that the current Eskom leadership is committed to government’s reforms.

Writing in her weekly newsletter, Mavuso slammed those who she described as “reform resisters”, taking particular aim at the Eskom board’s current approach to the unbundling of the TSO, as well as the National Union of Mineworkers’ legal challenge to the restructuring.

“I do not have confidence that the current Eskom leadership is genuinely committed to the success of these reforms,” she writes, arguing that the board continued to foreground obstacles rather than solutions.

Eskom, which is highly indebted, values the grid assets at some R110-billion and, in December, proposed that the TSO be established without those assets, which it said should remain part of an Eskom subsidiary to avoid any potential default.

That position was overruled by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his State of the Nation Address in February, when he set up an Eskom Restructuring Task Team to assess ways of creating a TSO, with the assets.

In a report that the President subsequently endorsed, the task team confirmed the desirability and viability of creating a new State-owned entity with the transmission assets, triggering a second phase during which it would move to find implementation solutions.

Ramaphosa said on August 13 that the task team would pursue a restructuring plan that minimised financial, operational and fiscal risk, strengthened energy security, and contributed to reducing the cost of electricity.

“We will undertake this restructuring carefully and responsibly. We will safeguard the financial sustainability of Eskom. We will protect energy security. And we will ensure that workers are treated fairly,” Ramaphosa said in a speech to the Steel and Engineering Federation of Southern Africa.

Nyati, whose term as board chair expires in October, has been vocal in his warning against the immediate transfer of the grid assets. This earned him a rebuke from the Presidency, who said it was unfortunate that an impression had been created that the process had not included Eskom and was to its detriment.

“All of Eskom’s concerns are well known and have been thoroughly discussed in government and with Eskom,” spokesperson Vincent Magwenya told Bloomberg.

Mavuso acknowledged that the restructuring of Eskom involved real complexity, but argued that there was a difference between acknowledging complexity and “weaponising it to resist change”.

“Obviously, the transmission assets are currently on the balance sheet of the utility to which they have lent those billions. They will not want the creditworthiness of that utility compromised through the unbundling. That is perfectly understandable, and respect for the rights of lenders and other investors is paramount in the process. But the bankers and lenders I speak to are clear that they are open to the conversation. It just needs to start. The Eskom board is not starting it. That is the problem,” she wrote.

Mavuso, who previously sat on the Eskom board, appealed for a board that sought solutions rather than obstacles and that was actively engaged with lenders to chart a clear reform pathway.

“Eskom's lenders are not against reform – most of them are strongly invested in seeing South Africa grow. What undermines their confidence is not the reform itself but the absence of credible implementation.”

She also argued that the NUM’s claim that the reforms would "kill Eskom" did not hold up.

“The real threat to Eskom is not unbundling; it is the R114bn in municipal arrears that continues to grow,” she wrote.

Also questioned is the approach being made by Electricity and Energy Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa to the Supreme Court to have a High Court judgment stopping new coal procurement overturned.

“I cannot see how this is a good use of the Minister's time or public money. The 2025 Integrated Resource Plan includes zero new coal generation – so the Minister is fighting in court for a technology the government has no plans to use.”