STARLINK HEADING TO SA

Pretoria-born billionaire Elon Musk could potentially bring Starlink to South Africa by side-stepping the country’s Black-empowerment rules.

Musk has made no secret about the fact that he thinks the Black-empowerment rules are “openly racist” and that he won’t abide by them.

This has halted the launch of Starlink in South Africa and has led to Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi proposing changes to the country’s Black-empowerment laws for multi-national satellite providers.

Instead, the company plans to invest about R2 billion in the country as a way to get around abiding by the rules.

Starlink has made it known to the South African government that it will channel the investment into infrastructure to support the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

SADC is made up of 16 countries.

Starlink aims to secure the deal with the South African government and relevant authorities before the G20 summit in Johannesburg in November.

Malatsi made it clear that at the end of the day, whether Starlink is awarded an operating licence in South Africa or not, will ultimately be in the hands of the country’s industry regulator.

Image credit: MyBroadband