Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX is seeking a licence to operate Starlink in South Africa, has accused President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government of developing “openly racist ownership laws”.
His comment, on X, follows US President Donald Trump’s decision at the weekend to stop sending aid to South Africa over its land expropriation policies, a move that sparked a selloff in the rand on Monday.
The rand slid nearly 2% against the dollar in early Asia trading on Trump’s comments, Bloomberg News reported.
“The United States won’t stand for it, we will act,” Trump said in a Sunday evening post on Truth Social. “Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!”
In response, Ramaphosa posted on X that his government “has not confiscated any land” and that the recently adopted Expropriation Act “is not a confiscation instrument” but rather a “constitutionally mandated legal process that ensures public access to land in an equitable and just manner as guided by the constitution”.
“South Africa, like the United States of America and other countries, has always had expropriation laws that balance the need for public usage of land and the protection of rights of property owners,” Ramaphosa posted.
“We look forward to engaging with the Trump administration over our land reform policy and issues of bilateral interest. We are certain that out of those engagements, we will share a better and common understanding over these matters.”
‘Openly racist’
But the South African-born Musk, who has intervened in the politics of other countries, including Germany and the UK where he has come out in support of far-right political parties, reposted Ramaphosa’s comments and asked: “Why do you have openly racist ownership laws?”
Musk’s incendiary post comes just days after it emerged that SpaceX has asked South African communications regulator Icasa to rethink the rules requiring 30% shareholding by “historically disadvantaged” groups.
In a written submission to the regulator, first reported on by TechCentral, SpaceX set out its concerns about the licensing framework in South Africa.
“Under the current South African regulatory system, companies providing services directly to end users must hold I-ECNS (network) and I-ECS (service) licences, which require at least 30% shareholding by historically disadvantaged groups,” SpaceX wrote in its submission.
Why do you have openly racist ownership laws? https://t.co/tHWVsmB04F
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 3, 2025
“Many foreign satellite operators, particularly those with direct-to-consumer business models, have global policies that prevent local shareholding, thus excluding them from the South African market. This holds true even when these operators are willing to comply with B-BBEE requirements and invest in initiatives that directly benefit the target communities,” the submission said.
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“By aligning the licensing and ownership regulations with the ICT sector code – which recognises equity equivalent programmes as an alternative to local shareholding – Icasa could remove a significant barrier to foreign satellite operators. This would not only increase foreign investment in South Africa but would also create broader industry benefits, supporting innovation, competition and long-term growth.” — © 2025 NewsCentral Media
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