In her weekly newsletter of 9 February 2026, CEO of Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA), Busisiwe Mavuso, highlights that the BLSA Reform Tracker shows broad reform progress except in electricity, where Eskom’s revised unbundling plan – approved by the Department of Electricity and Energy in December 2025 – leaves transmission assets with Eskom rather than transferring them to the independent TSO as agreed policy requires.
The BLSA Reform Tracker Second Quarterly Review shows South Africa's reform programme is largely on track, apart from the electricity setback. [Source: BLSA]
She makes the point that without owning grid assets, the TSO lacks balance sheet capacity to raise financing for the R440 billon transmission expansion needed to connect new renewable generation and support economic growth.
Indications are that business confidence is rising, with two-thirds of BLSA members positive about reforms and three-quarters citing electricity improvements specifically, but Mavuso emphasises that policy reversal threatens to derail the investment momentum this creates.
BLSA and BUSA have written to President Ramaphosa seeking clarity that the agreed electricity reform policy stands and anticipate the State of the Nation Address on 12 February as an opportunity for the president to reaffirm commitment and maintain investor confidence.
The release last week (5 February 2026) of the BLSA Reform Tracker Second Quarterly Review, showed that there has been broad progress across government’s reform agenda, with electricity being the single notable exception. Although South Africa has welcomed the decline of load shedding, now seen as a thing of the past, we must not be complacent, Mavuso states. The agreed electricity sector reform plan includes a fundamental reorganisation of how electricity is generated and distributed in the country, not only to ensure electricity stability, but to introduce fair competition that can start to bring prices down. We must be expanding generating capacity to support economic growth and investing in the grid to ensure we can distribute electricity from where it is produced to where it is needed.
This issue was escalated in Eskom’s recent briefing of the Parliamentary Energy and Electricity Portfolio Committee, when executives presented an unbundling approach that BLSA sees as being in conflict with policy – and notes that the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee has similarly signalled its concerns and called on Eskom to appear before it again to explain itself.
Mavuso notes in her newsletter that the CEO of Business Unity South Africa and she have jointly written to President Cyril Ramaphosa asking him to clarify where he stands on electricity reform. For these two business organisations, there is a clear and coherent plan in place, developed through extensive negotiation by partners, including the National Electricity Crisis Committee, the government’s own Operation Vulindlela reform team and National Treasury, and the National Economic and Labour Council.
The concern is that the revised unbundling plan for Eskom approved by the Department of Electricity and Energy in December, undermines agreed policy and threatens the outlook for grid investment, particularly. The current policy envisages that Eskom’s transmission infrastructure be unbundled into an independent Transmission System Operator, which would then have the balance sheet to enable it to raise finance to undertake significant grid infrastructure investment. However, the plan signed off in December fundamentally changes this, leaving the existing transmission assets to stay within Eskom. This means the TSO would not have its own grid asset base, severely limiting its ability to raise funds for investment.
The future of electricity reforms for the country is now cast into doubt. BLSA emphasises that grid investment is essential, and it must happen as fast as possible in line with the Transmission Development Plan. This plan indicates that 14 000 kilometres of new lines are required at a rough estimated cost of R440 billion. The grid is not currently configured to connect new sources of generation largely where renewable energy generation is most efficient, like solar in the Northern Cape and wind in the Eastern Cape, to where it is used. This gap will become more acute as the economy grows and electricity demand increases. Mavuso makes the point that the electricity stability we’ve enjoyed for the past 18 months will again become more fragile, and either we will end up with more load shedding, or we’ll strangle economic growth by killing off investment, or both.
Mavuso emphasises that the BLSA’s interest is in ensuring we have a business environment that is conducive to economic growth and employment. In line with the agreed policy, business confidence has been rising. The BLSA Reform Tracker included a survey of BLSA members that found almost two-thirds are positive about the impact of reforms over the next 12 months. These are major employers and investors in the economy, and that positive outlook will result in increased appetite to grow. Among them, three-quarters said the business environment had improved as a result of electricity reforms in particular.
The virtuous cycle of investment and growth, which business and government together are aiming to trigger, will not start if government does not follow through and deliver on the agreed policy. This is why BLSA invested in developing the Reform Tracker to ensure that agreed reforms stay on track. Mavuso confirms that good progress is being made in many respects, including improvements in the logistics system, visa processing rules, labour reforms, affordable housing, electoral reform and others. The regression on electricity stands out in contrast to these successes.
Having written to President Ramaphosa to convey their concerns, BUSA and BLSA look to Thursday’s State of the Nation Address, where we will hear, as Mavuso describes it, “the president’s signature statement on the business of government for the year ahead. Let us hope it delivers the clarity needed to maintain confidence and unlock the investment business can make,” she says.
For more information visit: https://blsa.org.za/
