The quiet unravelling of Eskom

When reform becomes dispossession

- NCO DUBE

THERE are moments in South Africa's political life when the most consequential decisions are not announced with fanfare, nor debated robustly in public, but are instead slipped quietly into the national bloodstream under the guise of inevitability. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address in 2026 contained one such moment.

On the surface, the President's remarks on energy reform sounded reassuring, even triumphant. Load shedding, we were told, is behind us. The electricity sector is being modernised. Renewable energy is scaling rapidly. Competition is being introduced. Transmission is being restructured to create a level playing field. Private investment will expand the grid. All of this, framed as the natural continuation of long-overdue reform.

Yet beneath this language of progress lies a profound shift in the political economy of electricity in South Africa - one that raises uncomfortable questions about ownership, control, accountability, and the future role of the state in securing a public good as fundamental as energy.

The President's announcement that a “fully independent state-owned transmission entity” will have ownership and control of transmission assets, and that independent transmission projects will be opened to private investment, appears at first glance to be a logical extension of Eskom’s unbundling. But when placed alongside the Electricity Minister's unbundling policy published barely weeks earlier, a troubling contradiction emerges.

Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa's policy framework envisaged a phased approach in which transmission assets would remain under Eskom Holdings, with the independent transmission system operator (TSO) evolving over time. This was not accidental. It reflected a cautious attempt to balance reform with institutional stability, recognising Eskom’s fragile recovery and the systemic risks of precipitous asset separation.