Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) CEO Busi Mavuso said reforms were moving faster than business confidence in the country, indicating that businesses were yet to feel the impact of reforms on the ground.This comes as business has rallied behind the government’s efforts to accelerate structural reforms and transform key network industries through Operation Vulindlela, a joint initiative of the National Treasury and President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office established in 2020 to address bottlenecks stifling economic growth.In her weekly newsletter on Monday, Mavuso noted that business confidence had fallen to 38 in the third quarter, well below the 47 recorded in the first quarter.“Last week gave us plenty of signs that reform is moving forward, but business confidence is far behind. That gap reflects the path we still must follow to turn reform into a real improvement in the operating environment,” Mavuso said.She said that National Treasury, through the Development Bank of Southern Africa, had issued a call for proposals for advisers on the unbundling of Eskom’s transmission assets into an independent transmission system operator, “is a significant step”. “The transaction is complex — it will require the approval of Eskom’s lenders — but such restructurings have been successfully concluded in many countries, and there is substantial international experience to draw on. I am confident that Treasury will secure the right expertise.” The timetable set out in the request for proposals was “ambitious” as the transaction must be concluded in the next 18 months. “I’ve been calling for the swift implementation of the unbundling plan, which is part of the wider electricity restructuring process that is settled policy, for some time. “It will be highly positive if this timetable can be achieved. While the plan has faced resistance in some quarters, I believe the key role players are now aligned on seeing it implemented. “A week ago I met the chair of Eskom, Mteto Nyati, and group CEO Dan Marokane to discuss our positions on the unbundling. I’m pleased to say both BLSA and Eskom fully support the electricity reform programme as outlined in a joint statement following our engagement.” The meeting came after Mavuso criticised the Eskom board as a potential obstacle to reform, saying while unbundling the power utility is complex, bankers and lenders are open to discussions but “the Eskom board is not starting it”. Mavuso said the process toward unbundling could now accelerate. She recently urged the government to move ahead with the implementation of an independent transmission system operator after Ramaphosa endorsed the first-phase report of the Eskom restructuring task team. In his state of the nation address in February, Ramaphosa announced the establishment of the task team to oversee Eskom’s restructuring, with the aim of creating a fully independent, state-owned operator. The new entity would own and manage the country’s transmission assets while operating the electricity market. Eskom is being unbundled into three entities responsible for generation, transmission and distribution in a move widely regarded as a cornerstone of South Africa’s electricity sector reforms, which are aimed at creating a reliable, affordable and sustainable power supply by opening the grid to greater competition and improving the efficiency of electricity transmission. “I know that Eskom’s lenders are willing to engage to find workable solutions. Treasury’s advisers will have an important role to play in aligning those role players and designing a transaction that works for everyone,” Mavuso said. “BLSA will play its part in supporting all role players to achieve that outcome. It is critical to establishing the foundations of growth in our economy.” Regarding the two-year extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act last week, Mavuso said the trade access it provides “is partly compromised by US President Trump’s tariffs, but it does positively affect some product lines that we export to the US. The extension is welcome, but it is too short to materially shift investment in SA, which would require much longer visibility.”“These positive signals stood in contrast with business confidence indicators that also came out last week. The RMB/BER business confidence indicator fell one point to 38 in the third quarter, a level that indicates generally negative sentiment, with 62% of respondents dissatisfied with prevailing business conditions. “This is down significantly from the 47 we saw in [the first quarter]. This reflects that businesses are not yet feeling the impact of reforms on the ground. The progress that we saw last week is important — they are steps toward a new operating environment in which electricity is priced through competitive markets and logistics services can be accessed through multiple operators,” Mavuso said. “But it is only when we get to fully functioning and competitive markets for electricity and logistics services that business sentiment will respond; when companies start to see their input costs falling and service reliability improving, they start to build confidence. That is the goal. We must not slow down before we get there.” Stanlib chief economist Kevin Lings said the two-year Agoa extension and restructuring of Eskom “help overall”. However, business needed a combination of deregulation and a “visible and sustained improvement in economic infrastructure to encourage increased fixed investment and employment”.Econometrix chief economist Azar Jammine said at the heart of lagging business confidence was the surge in fuel prices, linked to the protracted US-Iran war. That scuppered everything and prevented interest rates from being cut, he said.“So long as the government is hellbent on cadre deployment, where people are deployed to positions of power and decision-making based on their loyalty to the ruling party, we are not going to see [business] confidence improving. Corruption is completely out of control,” Jammine said.Update: September 7 2026This article has been updated with new information.Business Day