As his Starlink satellite service remains unavailable in the country, tech tycoon Elon Musk has questioned South African company ownership policies.
Earlier today, president Cyril Ramaphosa issued a statement in response to newly-elected US president Donald Trump’s statement on South Africa.
In his remarks on Sunday, Trump threatened to halt funding to South Africa, alleging: “South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people very badly.
“The United States won’t stand for it, we will act. Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!”
In response, Ramaphosa said: “South Africa is a constitutional democracy that is deeply rooted in the rule of law, justice and equality. The South African government has not confiscated any land.
“The recently adopted Expropriation Act is not a confiscation instrument, but a constitutionally mandated legal process that ensures public access to land in an equitable and just manner as guided by the Constitution.
“South Africa, like the United States of America and other countries, has always had expropriation laws that balance the need for public usage of land and the protection of rights of property owners.
“We look forward to engaging with the Trump administration over our land reform policy and issues of bilateral interest. We are certain that out of those engagements, we will share a better and common understanding over these matters.
“The US remains a key strategic political and trade partner for South Africa. With the exception of PEPFAR, which constitutes 17% of South Africa’s HIV/Aids programme, there is no other funding that is received by South Africa from the United States.”
South African-born Musk, who is part of the Trump administration, responded to Ramaphosa’s statement on his social media platform X, saying: “Why do you have openly racist ownership laws?”
SA is still eagerly awaiting Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service in the country. With Starlink already launching in SA’s Southern African peers, there’s been a lot of questions around why the satellite-based internet service has yet to be launched in the tech billionaire’s country of birth.
Starlink is an LEO satellite internet constellation operated by Musk’s SpaceX, providing satellite internet access coverage to over 60 countries. SpaceX began launching Starlink satellites in 2019.
Although Starlink is available in Botswana, Mozambique, Nigeria and Zambia, South Africans have been waiting for the service since 2021. Starlink's online coverage map shows the date for the service’s availability in the country as “unknown”.
There was hope that the service would soon be available in SA after Ramaphosa met with Musk in New York last year.
One of the requirements for licence approval is that SpaceX must be 30% owned by historically disadvantaged groups, which has caused mixed reaction in SA.
Non-profit organisation Public Interest SA recently urged the South African government not to bend its transformation policies to accommodate the launch of Starlink.
Advocacy group AfriForum recently submitted written comments to the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA), calling on the telecoms regulator to “drop its strict race criteria that currently encumber the granting of a South African licence to satellite internet service Starlink”.
Meanwhile, Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies chairperson Khusela Sangoni-Diko last week said: “Countries do have laws and in South Africa, we have BEE legislation which says in the specific sector where this company wants to operate in, there shall be a 30% BEE. It's there, it’s in law.
“If you are going to change the rules, you cannot do that in the middle of the game.”
This week, ICASA will host public hearings on the proposed new licensing framework for satellite services. SpaceX, Viasat, MultiChoice and mobile operators are set to present during the hearings.
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