SpaceX has criticised the time it is taking communications minister Solly Malatsi to issue a policy directive to reform regulations that would allow the Elon Musk-controlled company to launch the Starlink satellite broadband service in South Africa.
Ryan Goodnight, senior director of market access and development at SpaceX, told an audience at the Africa Tech Festival in Cape Town on Tuesday that the company was encouraged when Malatsi published a draft policy directive in May allowing for “equity equivalents” in licensing, but is now disappointed that the final directive still hasn’t been issued, six months later.
Icasa regulations require 30% of the equity of local telecoms licensees to be in the hands of “historically disadvantaged groups”. SpaceX has said it – as well as many other multinational companies – can’t comply with those requirements and would prefer a regime of equity equivalence that allows them to make equivalent investments in other areas, such as skills development.
Goodnight said SpaceX could launch Starlink in South Africa “tomorrow” if it wasn’t for the regulations. He said commercial agreements with local partners are already in place, including deals to strengthen the backhaul of mobile operators.
He decried what he called a “misalignment” between the Electronic Communications Act and Icasa’s regulations. He said SpaceX has a “consistent business model all over the world” that requires it to own 100% of the entities in the various countries in which it operates. This is for the sake of quick decision-making and business efficiency.
‘Four sentences’
“Our mission is to get internet access to the people with the least access in the world. Any increase in cost takes us away from that mission.”
He added that equity equivalents are a “very powerful way for companies to contribute to transformation goals of South Africa without divesting of equity” and are fully supported in the ICT sector BEE code.
Read: Malatsi to finalise Starlink-friendly BEE proposal within weeks
“These changes could be made tomorrow. They are literally four sentences in the regulations and this problem goes away,” Goodnight said.
He said Malatsi’s publication of the draft policy directive to Icasa in May was a positive development. “But here we are, 120 days later, and we still don’t have a [final] directive.” — © 2025 NewsCentral Media
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