Eskom's monopoly: Is a shift from anti-competitive practices possible?

WHEN Eskom was formed in 1923 by visionary industrialist Hendrik van der Bijl, its purpose was to supply low-cost electricity as the foundation for South Africa’s industrialisation and diversification away from the gold mining industry, then the country’s dominant economic sector.

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ESKOM was established as a vertically integrated utility.

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Van der Bijl believed that the functions of an engineer could be embodied in one sentence: the promotion of the wellbeing of humankind. He played a pivotal role in the development of wireless telephony and authored the Van der Bijl equation, which defines the mathematics of the thermionic vacuum tube. His credentials were extensive—PhD, DSc, LLD, and Fellow of the Royal Society.

Eskom was established as a vertically integrated utility responsible for generating, transmitting, and distributing electricity, maintaining system balance, and collecting revenue to sustain its operations. It was structured as a not-for-profit company but managed like a commercial enterprise and protected from competition under the Eskom Act. At the time, Van der Bijl believed that protection was necessary for stability and long-term success. That protection, however, would return decades later to haunt South African society.

On October 14, 2025, the South African Academy of Engineering and the University of Pretoria’s Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology will co-host the annual Hendrik van der Bijl Memorial Lecture. The speaker will be Dr Mteto Nyati, the chairperson of the Eskom board.