South Africa moves to change empowerment law for Elon Musk’s Starlink

South Africa has proposed new legislation to meet Elon Musk’s conditions for offering his Starlink satellite internet service in his birth country after the billionaire refused to comply with Black empowerment laws he called “openly racist”. Days after a bruising meeting between South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and his US counterpart Donald Trump in the Oval Office, Pretoria moved to loosen affirmative action laws requiring foreign investors in telecommunications to sell 30 per cent of equity in their local entity to historically disadvantaged groups in order to qualify for operating licences. Communications minister Solly Malatsi proposed companies could instead invest in “equity equivalence programmes” — such as signing up local suppliers, creating a certain number of jobs, or financing small businesses. The proposal will be open to public comment for 30 days. Musk, one of Trump’s closest advisers, has long complained that the current rules put him in an “absurd situation where I was born in South Africa but cannot get a licence to operate in South Africa because I am not Black”. Officials say he has not formally applied for a licence for Starlink, which is owned by SpaceX, a US-registered company. Other international telecoms operators in the country, such as Vodafone’s local unit Vodacom, have sold shares in local subsidiaries to Black investors to comply with existing rules.