Ramaphosa overrules Eskom revised breakup plan

South Africa is on track to set up an independent power-transmission company, President Cyril Ramaphosa said, countering assertions that the state is revising the plan.

The government is restructuring state-owned power utility Eskom. “and establishing a fully independent state owned transmission entity, as I have said before,” he told lawmakers in his state-of-the-nation speech in Cape Town.

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“This entity will have ownership and control of transmission assets and be responsible for operating the electricity market.”

In a statement in December, the utility said Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa had approved a “revised unbundling strategy” that would still split Eskom into distribution, generation, renewable energy and transmission units under a single holding company.

It would also see ownership of the grid remain with Eskom, rather than being transferred to an independent transmission system operator.

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The statement contrasted with earlier plans to separate the company into three stand-alone units, as Ramaphosa proposed in 2019, to create a more competitive electricity market and make it easier to manage the divisions and their debt.

Analysts had said the revised strategy may jeopardise further implementation of the multi-billion-dollar Just Energy Transition Partnership, a programme backed by European countries to help South Africa reduce its reliance on coal-fired power.

Ramaphosa said he has started a so-called task team under the national energy-crisis committee “to address the various issues relating to the restructuring process, including clear time frames for its phase implementation.”

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