Finance Minister Tito Mboweni insists that the inclusion of a strategic equity partner in the national grid company to be formed in mid-2019 as a result of the unbundling of Eskom into three separate State-owned entities does not amount to privatisation. The proposal is, nevertheless, likely to reinforce the argument of some trade unions that the unbundling is a precursor to privatisation. It is also noteworthy in that it aims to include a private participant in an area of the electricity supply sector that is expected to remain a monopoly, even after unbundling.
