MPs on Tuesday challenged a plan to provide an alternative to black ownership rules that could pave the way for Elon Musk’s Starlink to operate in South Africa.
“We are not going to accept a situation where our laws are going to be rewritten in Washington,” Sixolisa Gcilishe, a member of the leftist Economic Freedom Fighters, told a meeting in Cape Town.
Communications minister Solly Malatsi of the Democratic Alliance, the second largest party in the nation’s governing coalition, last week proposed amending rules to allow companies like Starlink to enter South African without sharing ownership.
The directive was issued two days after President Cyril Ramaphosa met his US counterpart Donald Trump in Washington to mend relations that have been strained on several fronts, including Trump’s false claims of a white genocide in South Africa which Musk has shared. Musk attended that Oval Office meeting.
The ANC, the largest member of the coalition, also criticised the plan.
“This is leaving an opportunity for international players to come through the back door,” said the ANC’s Tshehofatso Chauke. It “favours big business rather than the interests of South Africans and those who are previously disadvantaged.”
Whether the government can make the proposal under existing law, or needs to win the backing of parliament to change legislation, is a subject of debate.
Equity equivalents
Some lawmakers called for a legal opinion on Malatsi’s proposal, arguing it might not supersede the Electronic Communications Act, which governs licensing in the telecoms sector, and may require a change to legislation. Others said the proposal complies with domestic laws.
Malatsi said the plan addresses a gap in the regulations and would give foreign companies two options to enter South Africa — either black ownership or an “equity equivalent” scheme.
Read: Malatsi insists BEE directive is not a shortcut for Starlink
South Africa introduced black ownership rules after the end of apartheid, an era in which black people were excluded from the formal economy by the ruling white minority. Musk, who was born in Pretoria, has called South Africa’s race-based laws “openly racist”.
Starlink’s technology, which relies on low-Earth orbit satellites, would be a potential gamechanger for South African users who’ve historically faced expensive or unreliable internet options. Only 1.7% of rural households have access to the internet, according to a 2023 survey compiled by the local statistics agency.
MTN Group, the largest mobile operator in Africa by footprint, has started trials with satellite operators including Starlink in some markets where the service is allowed. Last month, Ramaphosa appointed its chairman, Mcebisi Jonas, as special envoy to the US to help repair relations between Pretoria and Washington that have deteriorated under Trump.
MTN said last week it’s reviewing the details of the policy directive for the South African market, and will submit comments within the 30-day response period.
Meanwhile, President Ramaphosa has moved to defend South African laws aimed at uplifting the country’s black majority and said he is “baffled” by suggestions that they are stifling economic growth.
The so-called empowerment laws have been central to a fallout between Ramaphosa, Trump and Musk, who say they are racist and unfairly prejudice white citizens. They have also spread the false conspiracy theory that white Afrikaner farmers have been subjected to a genocide — an allegation South Africa says is totally unfounded.
“I find it very worrying that we continue to have this notion that broad-based black economic empowerment” is holding the economy back, Ramaphosa said in response to a MP’s question in Cape Town on Tuesday. “It is the partial and exclusive ownership of the means of production in our country that is keeping this economy from growing.”
Ramaphosa referred to World Bank and International Monetary Fund studies, which he said found a disproportionate share of the economy remains in the hands of a privileged minority.
Beneficiary
“What do you want to see happening? Do you want to see black people continuing to play the role of labourers, drawers of water, hewers of wood and consumers only?” he asked. “Black people must play a productive role as well” and should be able to become rich, he said.
The president is himself a beneficiary of South Africa’s empowerment policies — he became one of the nation’s richest black men during a stint in business during which he acquired stakes in a number of companies whose predominately white owners were trying to diversify their shareholder bases. — S’thembile Cele, Loni Prinsloo and Ntando Thukwana, with Alexander Parker and Paul Vecchiatto, (c) 2025 Bloomberg LP
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