South Africa Doesn’t Think Starlink’s Plans Are So Slick

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The Trump administration has reportedly used its tariff negotiations to pressure countries into fast-tracking deals with Elon Musk’s satellite internet service Starlink. South Africa does not appear willing to play the game. According to a report from Bloomberg, lawmakers are calling bullshit on Starlink’s attempts to bypass the nation’s laws that require companies to have 30% Black ownership to operate within its borders.

Last week, a member of South Africa’s second-largest governing party proposed a rule change that would allow companies like Starlink to get an exemption to South Africa’s economic-empowerment laws. Under the proposal, a company could offer an “equity equivalent,” including investment in the nation’s information and communication technology sector. Such alternatives already exist for the automotive industry in the nation to account for multinational companies that want to do business in South Africa but can’t directly sell off a share of ownership to meet South Africa’s standards.

But other members of the South African government aren’t willing to give in that easily. The African National Congress, the country’s largest governing party, criticized the plan for “leaving an opportunity for international players to come through the back door” and usurp the country’s own companies working in the space. Sixolisa Gcilishe, a member of the Economic Freedom Fighters party, likewise took issue with the proposal and insisted, “We are not going to accept a situation where our laws are going to be rewritten in Washington,” per Bloomberg.

The proposal came as Starlink was looking to enter South Africa’s internet market and was made in advance of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s visit with Donald Trump, as an attempt to ease tensions between the two nations while they work through trade negotiations. Those tensions stem in large part from the Trump administration’s insistence that the South African government is seizing the land of white farmers and committing genocide against its white population, a claim that is not remotely true. Nonetheless, the Trump administration has welcomed dozens of white South Africans as “refugees.”

Musk, notably a white South African, has attacked his home country on multiple occasions for what he calls “racist ownership laws.” He also claimed during a recent interview with Bloomberg that the reason Starlink can’t operate in South Africa is because he is not Black, which is also not an accurate description of the nation’s laws.

Musk has gotten used to getting his way with Starlink, in part because the Trump administration has reportedly been using tariff negotiations to grease the wheels around the world for the company. In the months since the tariffs were announced, Starlink has gotten fast-tracked in a number of nations as Trump officials have encouraged them to do deals with American internet companies. It probably irks Musk quite a bit that South Africa is one country that won’t just roll over for him.

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