{"id":30657,"date":"2025-05-23T21:25:02","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T19:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/?p=30657"},"modified":"2025-05-23T21:25:02","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T19:25:02","slug":"potential-operation-of-starlink-in-sa-divides-the-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/2025\/05\/23\/potential-operation-of-starlink-in-sa-divides-the-nation\/","title":{"rendered":"Potential operation of Starlink in SA divides the nation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

South Africans have expressed mixed reactions to the government’s latest gazette proposing changes to the<\/span><\/p>\n

Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE)<\/span><\/p>\n

licensing requirements.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If passed, this will pave the way for companies such as Starlink to operate in South Africa.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Minister of Communications and Digital Technology, Solly Malatsi, published the draft policy which is open for public comment over the next 30 days.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

[STATEMENT] POLICY DIRECTION ON EQUITY EQUIVALENT INVESTMENT PROGRAMMES IN THE ICT SECTOR pic.twitter.com\/a38Pt2IAS5<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 SollyMalatsi (@SollyMalatsi) May 23, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Currently, Starlink is unable to launch in South Africa as it must have a local entity that is 30% owned by historically disadvantaged groups.<\/p>\n

A law that was introduced in 1994 when Apartheid came to an end, aimed at addressing the inequalities of the past law.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The very law that South African-born billionaire Elon Musk\u00a0has suggested is\u00a0racist, however, if it is amended, SpaceX\u2019s satellite Internet service could see the day of light in the country.<\/p>\n

Starlink is not allowed to operate in South Africa, because I\u2019m not black https:\/\/t.co\/yOFafNValQ<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Kekius Maximus (@elonmusk) March 7, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

The proposed legislation comes days after President Cyril Ramaphosa and his delegation icluding businessman Johann Rupert met with his US counterpart\u00a0Donald Trump in Washington.<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/WhatsApp-Video-2025-05-23-at-13.17.03.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

Following those talks, however, Ramaphosa said\u00a0Starlink was not discussed with Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Musk’s satellite internet service has been a hot topic in South Africa since last year.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In September he took to X saying he was awaiting regulatory approval.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Waiting for regulatory approval<\/p>\n

\u2014 Kekius Maximus (@elonmusk) September 8, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Later that month met with the president during the United Nations General Assembly in New York to discuss it along with development in the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last month the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Communications Committee, Khusela Diko, took to X warning Malatsi against transformation in the tech.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

MEDIA STATEMENT 1\/2<\/p>\n

MINISTER MALATSI SET TO FALL FOUL OF THE LAW IN EFFORTS TO ERODE THE STATE AND APPEASE BUSINESS<\/p>\n

Parliament, Monday, 7 April 2025 \u2013The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies, Ms Khusela Sangoni Diko, has expressed\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/2HyNx2NWGS<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Khusela Diko\ud83c\uddff\ud83c\udde6 (@KhuselaS) April 7, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

\n

Why do you have openly racist ownership laws? https:\/\/t.co\/tHWVsmB04F<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Kekius Maximus (@elonmusk) February 3, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The\u00a0Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF)\u00a0 which have been opposed\u00a0to Starlink operating in South Africa have issued a scathing statement, saying, ‘Musk has arrogantly refused to comply with our sovereign laws, and the ANC-led government has chosen to kneel.’<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The EFF\u2019s Statement Rejecting Malatsi\u2019s Anti-Transformation ICT Policy Direction and Capitulation to US Pressure<\/p>\n

-This policy is tailor-made to allow Starlink access to operate in South Africa without meeting the mandatory 30% local ownership requirement as per the Electronic\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/X7kqfHMlyZ<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica) May 23, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The main opposition party,\u00a0uMkhonto weSizwe, \u00a0has also expressed its frustration over the move.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

[MEDIA STATEMENT]: STATEMENT ON THE STARLINK SELL-OUT DEAL: A BETRAYAL DISGUISED AS REFORM. pic.twitter.com\/VyZIOk1VPK<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 uMkhonto WeSizwe Party (Official) (@MkhontoweSizwex) May 23, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

\u201cCan of worms\u201d has a negative connotation that implies creating a troublesome situation whilst this is an excellent development for the country.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Brice (@rvcbrice) May 23, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

They were busy insulting me for Ramaphosa only for Ramaphosa to insult them back through Starlink \ud83e\udd23\ud83e\udd23\ud83e\udd23\ud83e\udd23<\/p>\n

\u2014 Bongza \u00ae\ud83c\uddff\ud83c\udde6 (@justbongza) May 23, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

In South Africa Ramaphosa is selling the country to Starlink \ud83d\ude2d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mpho Mokoena (@mokoena_mp68668) May 23, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africans have expressed mixed reactions to the government’s latest gazette proposing changes to the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) licensing requirements. \u00a0 If passed, this will pave the way for companies such as Starlink to operate in South Africa. \u00a0 The Minister of Communications and Digital Technology, Solly Malatsi, ...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":30670,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/WhatsApp-Image-2025-05-23-at-20.34.03.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30657"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30673,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30657\/revisions\/30673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}