Online Reporter
Barely a day after US President Donald Trump threatened to cut funding to South Africa because of the country’s new land expropriation laws, one of his biggest backers — Elon Musk — piled the pressure on President Cyril Ramaphosa, asking in an X post: “Why do you have openly racist ownership laws?”
Musk, the SA-born billionaire who made it big in the US, was reacting to Ramaphosa’s response to Trump on his claims that SA “is confiscating land” through expropriation.
However, Musk’s comments are in relation to ambitions by his SpaceX Starlink internet satellite business to secure an operating licence in SA without any black economic empowerment (BEE) restrictions.
SA’s BEE laws broadly require international companies operating in the country to have 30 percent ownership by previously disadvantaged local groups.
SpaceX has argued that the current BEE laws create a significant barrier for international satellite operators like Starlink and requested reconsideration of the policy before entering the South African market.
However, the Communications Committee in Parliament last week insisted that Starlink must comply with SA’s BEE laws. Communications Committee chair Khusela Diko was asked about SpaceX’s submission to the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa). Diko reiterated the government’s stance that no company can bypass the country’s regulations, particularly the 30 percent BEE ownership requirement for businesses in the telecommunications sector.
Musk is a close ally of Trump, and the US president’s latest broadside on SA’s land expropriation laws incidentally comes within days of the SA parliamentary committee’s comments on Starlink.
Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya also weighed in on Musk’s post to the president, saying Musk should keep in mind that as a result of the devastating legacy of centuries of oppressive and brutal colonialism and apartheid, the SA Constitution provides for redressing the ills of the past. — Moneyweb
