Eskom and business lobby group Business Leadership SA (BLSA) have moved to end months of public sparring over the fate of the utility’s transmission grid, issuing a joint statement to defuse tension just hours before the state-owned power producer was due to update investors on its finances.The truce follows a public dispute that become public in July, when BLSA CEO Busisiwe Mavuso accused Eskom chair Mteto Nyati of trying to unwind a decision on unbundling that the president had already settled, after he suggested business groups were pressuring the political leadership to strip Eskom of the assets. Mavuso later used her weekly newsletter to accuse the Eskom board of resisting the handover, saying lenders were willing to engage even as the board held back. Nyati has since softened his position in public remarks, previously saying that Eskom was agnostic about who owned the transmission assets and had never been tied to keeping them.On Monday, BLSA and Eskom said in the statement that a direct engagement, initiated by Nyati, had produced agreement on the broad shape of the country’s electricity reform programme. Both organisations said they supported the creation of an independent transmission system operator to hold the grid’s assets — an outcome President Cyril Ramaphosa endorsed after a government-appointed task team completed its first-phase review.The statement described the process as one that must safeguard Eskom’s financial sustainability, respect the rights of lenders and protect energy security. It called reform and a financially sound Eskom complementary goals rather than competing ones, while conceding the two sides would not always agree on every aspect of implementation.The reconciliation comes as Eskom prepares to disclose results still shadowed by a qualified audit opinion, municipal arrears debt that stood at R94.6bn as of March 2025 and warnings from ratings companies over the transmission split itself. Moody’s has flagged the move as potentially credit negative, while Fitch has pointed to execution risk. Eskom will appoint advisers in the coming weeks to open formal talks with creditors who hold the transmission assets as security and must consent before any transfer proceeds. The outcome of those negotiations, along with the valuation of the assets and the treatment of municipal debt, is likely to be announced by the power utility in 2027. Business Day