{"id":879254,"date":"2026-10-12T10:43:35","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T08:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=879254"},"modified":"2026-10-12T10:43:38","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T08:43:38","slug":"end-of-eskoms-monopoly-delayed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business-opinion\/879254\/end-of-eskoms-monopoly-delayed\/","title":{"rendered":"End of Eskom’s monopoly delayed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Private electricity infrastructure could be delayed until the end of the decade, after requests for proposals for South Africa’s Independent Transmission Project (ITP) are pushed back again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ITP would allow private companies to construct and operate electrical infrastructure in South Africa, such as power lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It forms part of the Department of Electricity and Energy’s broader plans to end Eskom’s monopoly over the national grid by introducing private-sector participation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is largely through gazettes such as the Electricity Sector Market Transformation Position Paper, which outlines how companies can operate in the energy sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of this plan, the National Transmission Company South Africa (NTCSA) was formed to unbundle the transmission infrastructure from Eskom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department of Electricity and Energy is aiming to build 14,500 kilometres of new transmission lines by 2034.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first stage of this investment into new infrastructure will help create 1,164 kilometres of power lines, according to Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) CEO Busisiwe Mavuso.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Mavuso voiced concern about delays to this investment, which was announced by the Department of Electricity and Energy earlier this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“An announcement earlier this month from the Department of Electricity and Energy and the National Treasury has delayed the request for proposals from the third quarter of this year to the second quarter of next year,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She called the delay in a request for proposals “an unfortunate slippage of the timetable.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She noted that the project is an important means of bringing private-sector investment into South Africa’s economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It is critical to our economic growth targets as it will unlock greater electricity generation and access,” she described.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A silver lining<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Business Leadership South Africa Chief Executive, Busisiwe Mavuso<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While Mavuso said the delay in proposals was unfortunate, she explained that it is preferable to rushing the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A delay is better than rushing to market with a call for proposals that can\u2019t then be properly managed or lead to excessive pricing because bidders can\u2019t assess the risks,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A failed procurement would lead to more delays and be more expensive than a pause while government gets it right.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added that the Department of Electricity and Energy has demonstrated an ability to support the process, despite delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The good news is that there has been real institutional capacity building to support the process,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An important part of encouraging private-sector participation in the programme was establishing a credit guarantee vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is being established by the National Treasury, the World Bank, FSB Africa and the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mavuso said the credit guarantee vehicle is important for ensuring investor confidence in the new Independent Transmission System and Market Operator (ITSMO).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Given the ITSMO is still in the process of being established, bidders would face a counterparty that does not yet have its own balance sheet or credit history,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The guarantee vehicle provides an important risk management function that will ensure bidders have the confidence to make long-term multi-billion rand investments.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Work on the credit guarantee vehicle has already started, and it was incorporated in August, according to Mavuso.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the work towards ending Eskom’s monopoly over South Africa’s transmission systems is positive, Mavuso said timelines are still a worry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The timelines are a concern,” she said. “On the current trajectory, the new grid infrastructure is unlikely to be in operation by the end of the decade.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The grid is already the binding constraint for new electricity generation, as we cannot get electricity from where it is cheap to generate to where it needs to be consumed.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A clear timetable for that whole process now would help manage expectations and enable planning.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Private sector participation in electricity infrastructure has faced delays, but there is a silver lining, according to Busisiwe Mavuso.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":829359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2109565749865951363","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2234520934034972","_sma_instagram_post_id":"17994091215110000","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[19461,21179,1164],"class_list":["post-879254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-opinion","tag-busisiwe-mavuso","tag-department-of-electricity-and-energy","tag-eskom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879254"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":879340,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879254\/revisions\/879340"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}